Virginia Gallagher Papers
Information, Description, and Finding Aid
Collection Information
Reference: MS-GALLAGHER
Dates: 1965–2011
Extent: 1.33 linear ft. across 1 archival box
Finding Aid Information
Creator(s): Steven Payne, Ph.D., Librarian and Archivist
Date created/updated: April 24, 2020
Biography
Virginia Gallagher has been a Bronx community activist for decades, and has focused her energy especially in the Northeast Bronx and City Island, where she resides. A native of Long Island, Gallagher moved to City Island more than 40 years ago with her late husband, Jack. She was a founding member of the City Island Community Center and the City Island Volunteer Ambulance Corps. During her tenure as President of the Civic Association from 1962 to 1981, she worked with other islanders to pressure the city to build a new school on the former site of Nevins Shipyard. Public School 175 proudly opened its doors in 1975. She was the first elected Chairman of Community Planning Board 12 during the period when Co-op City was built. In 1977 she was appointed to Community Board 10. She also helped create the Thomas Pell Wildlife Refuge Sanctuary in Pelham Bay Park.
Description/Scope and Content
The collection consists of a binder of photocopied correspondence, memos, and newspaper clippings on the fight to prevent landfill projects in Pelham Bay Park in the 1960s.
Provenance
Materials in this collection were donated to the Society on January 25, 2012, by Virginia Gallagher.
Preferred Citation
[Item name or description,] Virginia Gallagher papers, box _, folder _, The Bronx County Archives at The Bronx County Historical Society Research Library.
Points of Access
- Pending (Community Activism, Ecology, Pelham Bay Park, Environmentalism)
Related Collections
- Pending
Container List
|
Box |
Item |
Contents |
Date |
| 1 | 1 | Scrapbook: Correspondence, newspaper clippings, reports, and other material associated with successful effort by Virginia Gallagher and others in 1960s to preserve over 300 acres of Pelham Bay Park and to create the Thomas Pell Sanctuary and Hunter Island Marine Zoology and Geology Sanctuaries on 489 acres. | 1965–2011 |