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TWEED, William M. (1823-1878)
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TWEED, WILLIAM M., a Representative from New York; born in New York City April 3, 1823; completed preparatory studies; learned the trades of chair maker and brush maker; alderman in New York City, 1852-1853; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1855); was not a candidate for renomination to the Thirty-fourth Congress in 1854; school commissioner for New York City in 1856 and 1857; member of the board of supervisors for New York County, 1858-1875, and president, 1864-1865 and 1870; defeated as the peace candidate for New York County sheriff in 1861; deputy street commissioner of New York City, 1861-1870; member of the New York state senate, 1867-1873; commissioner of the New York City department of public works in 1870; convicted on November 19, 1873, of willfully neglecting to perform a duty of a public officer; sentenced to city prison; released on appeal but remanded to city prison by state authorities to recover lost public funds in June 1875; escaped prison in December 1875 and was captured in Spain; brought back to the United States on a man-of-war, the USS Franklin; confined to city prison until his death on April 12, 1878; interment in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y.

New York City Department of Records and Information Services
Municipal Archives
New York, NY
Papers: 1853-1857. 19 items.
Chiefly letters from Tweed as a Representative to James J. Murphy about securing for Murphy the position of postmaster of Williamsburg, NY. Discuss patronage and politics, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and the Know Nothing Party. Finding aid in repository.

Columbia University
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
New York, NY
Papers: In the Cornelius Rea Agnew Papers, 1851-1924, 6 linear feet.
Correspondents include William March Tweed.

Papers: In the Edwin Patrick Kilroe Papers, 1776-1959, 41 boxes.
Correspondents include William Marcy Tweed.

The New-York Historical Society
New York, NY
Papers: 1846-1877. 48 items.
Papers: In the Fairchild Collection, ca. 1700-1928. 8.3 linear feet.
Persons represented include William Marcy Tweed.

Papers: In the Henry Fox Taintor Papers, 1858-1913, approximately 65 items.
Persons represented include William Marcy Tweed.

New York Public Library
Research Library
New York, NY
Papers: In the George Jones Papers, ca. 1825-1894, 0.4 linear foot.
Persons represented include William Marcy Tweed.

Papers: In the Samuel J. Tilden Papers, ca. 1794-1886, 36 linear feet.
Other authors include William Marcy Tweed.

Princeton University Library
Manuscripts Division
Princeton, NJ
Photographs: In the Laurence Hutton Photograph Albums, ca. 1800s, 5 linear feet.
Persons represented include William Marcy Tweed.

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
Fremont, OH
Papers: In the Thomas Nast Papers, 1860-1902, 1 linear foot.
Persons represented include William Marcy Tweed.

Stanford University Libraries
Department of Special Collections, Green Library
Stanford, CA
Papers: In the Carnochan Family Papers, 1745-1929, 11.5 linear feet.
Correspondents include William Marcy Tweed.

Syracuse University Library
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse, NY
Papers: In the Thomas Nast Collection, ca. 1862-1902, 2 linear feet.
The collection includes many caricatures of William Marcy (Boss) Tweed.

Texas Tech University
Southwest Collection
Lubbock, TX
Papers: In the Tweed Family Papers, ca. 1836-1952, approximately 1,852 leaves.
Other authors include William Marcy Tweed.

  • Ashby, Ruth. Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall. San Diego, Calif.: Blackbirch Press, 2002.
  • Bales, William Alan. Tiger In The Streets. New York: Dodd Mead and Company, 1962.
  • Brezina, Corona. America's Political Scandals in the Late 1800s: Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall. New York: Rosen Publishing Co., 2004.
  • Callow, Alexander B., Jr. The Tweed Ring. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.
  • Hershkowitz, Leo. Tweed's New York: Another Look. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press-Doubleday, 1978.
  • Hoff, Syd. Boss Tweed and the Man Who Drew Him. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1978.
  • Lynch, Denis Tilden. Boss Tweed: The Story of a Grim Generation. 1927. Reprint, new extended introduction by Dennis Hale, New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2002.
  • Mandelbaum, Seymour J. Boss Tweed's New York. New York: Wiley, 1965. Reprint, with a new introduction by the author, Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1990.
  • Pratt, John W. "Boss Tweed's Public Welfare Program." New-York Historical Society Quarterly 45 (October 1961): 396-411.
  • Tweed, William Marcy. Boss Tweed in Court [microform]: A Documentary History. Project editor, Leo Hershkowitz. Bethesda, Md.: University Publications of America, 1990.