About

The Museum is currently in the midst of a long term project, begun in 2008, to digitize its holdings, starting with the vast collections of photographs, prints, and other works on paper depicting the changing city over time. We’ve already uploaded more than 95,000 historic images documenting New York, its built environment, streets, and people, to our online Collections Portal, including iconic images by Berenice Abbott, the Byron Company, Samuel H. Gottscho, Jacob Riis, the Wurts Brothers, and more than 10,000 prints, maps, and drawings dating from as early as the 17th century. You’ll also find images shot by a young Stanley Kubrick for LOOK Magazine; an extensive collection of photographic prints and negatives made by the realist painter and printmaker Reginald Marsh; and a collection of more than 3,000 prints made between 1935 and 1907 by Nathaniel Currier and The Currier & Ives (1857-1907) printing firm. Click here to explore the online Collections Portal.

The project is staffed by a manager, two catalogers, and two photographers, whose work is made possible by our generous funders. Here you’ll find out about the images and objects that have caught their imagination or sparked their interest, and get an advance look at the material they’re working on. You’ll also occasionally hear from some of the archivists and curators who care for the collections that are being digitized, and from collections staff at the Seaport Museum.

We hope you enjoy this blog. Click here to visit the Museum of the City of New York’s Website.