America’s Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York, 1966–1973

America’s Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York, 1966–1973

This exhibition explored the career of the liberal Republican (and eventual Democrat) who occupied City Hall from 1966 to 1973. America’s Mayor contextualized the multiple strands of political, social, and racial ferment that defined the 1960s in New York City and confronted John Lindsay with daily crises, inspiring innovative programs and fresh approaches that continue to shape public policy and urban liberalism half a century later.  

The Sixties were heady times in New York City, and John Lindsay seemed to be everywhere. It was fascinating to locate, display, and interpret such disparate artifacts as a life-size puppet used by the Bread and Puppet Theater in anti-Vietnam War marches, protest placards from the turbulent 1968 teachers’ strike, a political poster that provoked the arrest of artist Faith Ringgold for “desecrating the American flag” in 1970, Allen Ginsberg’s Buddhist mala beads and hand organ, one of Bella Abzug’s signature hats, and even a Department of Sanitation trash can from 1966. Co-curated with Sarah M. Henry and designed by Pure + Applied.