After four years of sorting through 2.2 million photographs in New York City’s Municipal Archives in an effort to make records accessible to anyone and everyone, the city’s Department of Records officially debuted their online photo database yesterday, April 24th.
The remarkable photos, which are being exhibited on the database, depict various aspects of New York City life in the mid-19th and 20th centuries, specific to municipal workers, average citizens, gang members, and law enforcement. Included in the assortment of photos is the largest collection of criminal justice evidence, an estimated 1,300 images taken by local photographers during the Depression, and more than 800,000 color photographs of every city building from the mid-1980s. Unfortunately, due to financial limitations, as well as technological, we are not able quite yet to view the 720,000 photographs of every city building from 1939 to 1942. That, however, is expected to change in time due the database’s projected growth and the department’s strategies in forging ahead to continue in uploading more images.
Each photograph in the archive is a telling tool that provides us with a significant backdrop that only serves to satisfy our desires in learning more about the history behind one of the most exciting cities in the world.
Be sure to visit the official online database HERE.
June 1908: The Manhattan Bridge
December 1936: The George Washington Bridge
October 1930 : 28th Street in Manhattan
May 1940: 40th street and Sixth Avenue
September 1936: Babe Ruth at the Polo Grounds
1937: Grand Central Station
July 1908: Delancy Street - Lower East Side.
Date Unknown: The Third Ave. Train
Via: The Daily Mail
