New York’s Scoundrels, Scalawags, and Scrappers: The City in the Last Decade of the Gilded Age

This is an in-person program at the Museum's lower Manhattan gallery.

Tireless chronicler of Manhattan's building history, John Tauranac finds a new angle on the city's past in his new book New York's Scoundrels, Scalawags, and Scrappers: The City in the Last Decade of the Gilded Age. Beginning each chapter with a different building of the era, he delves into the social history on site. As he recounts, the 1890s, the tail end of the Gilded Age, was both a time of great inequality and, also, opportunity for those who did not play by the rules. These included "the managements of some businesses and some administrations of the municipality who... gamed the system to their advantage. They are New York's scoundrels, scalawags, and scrappers." As writer Tony Hiss comments, "As these meticulously recaptured events unfold chapter by chapter, an uncanny resemblance between then and now emerges.” 

John Tauranac

John Tauranac writes about New York City's social and architectural history. His books include Manhattan's Little Secrets, the three editions of New York From the Air, The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark, and Elegant New York: The Builders and the Buildings, 1885-1915. Wearing another hat, Tauranac designs maps. He was the creative director of the MTA's 1979 "New York City Subway Map" and has designed dozens of maps for other organizations as well as for Tauranac Maps.

Cover: Lyons Press, 2025.