This website contains some
valuable information about Bronx business and its role in the growth and
development of the borough. Most of it comes from the records of the Bronx
Board of Trade, an organization of Bronx businessmen. Here you will find
excerpts from the Minutes of the Board’s meetings at which certain matters
were discussed and approved. Many of these items became reality. Here,
also, are excerpts from articles that appeared in the Board’s magazine,
Bronxboro. These articles discuss aspects of the borough’s past, a few
of the major firms in the Bronx, and plans for the future. In addition,
there are a few excerpts from the scrapbooks of newspaper articles clipped
and preserved by the Board that provide useful information about businesses
and the effect that public projects were expected to have.
Except for the
historical articles, all of these materials are primary sources -- materials
written at the time when events actually took place. They are the stuff
that historians must use to write the history of any time period. Of great
use is another primary source, photographs. The photographs collected by
the Board of Trade capture the images of the borough at different points in
time and help give you a sense of what it was like to stand in that
location, then seeing what is pictured. Included with this website is a
series of activities and educational projects for children and young adults
using this material. These are useful for active learning and in exploring
primary sources, in order to discover and organize historical information
useful for our own time. There is also a bibliography of books to consult
and web links to other sources.
Office of the Bronx
Borough Historian
3309 Bainbridge Avenue
Bronx, New York 10467
(718) 881-8901
