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Explore New York’s past through over 250,000 objects from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
Broadway Productions
The City Museum has received generous funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to digitize its theater production files--more than 30,000 photographs documenting over 5,000 Broadway productions. They'll be made available here as they're digitized...
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Posters and Patriotism
This selection of images from the World War I poster collection donated to the Museum by railroad executive and financier John W. Campbell (1880-1957) in 1943, is representative of many shown in Posters and Patriotism: Selling World War I in New York. When the...
Federal Art Project
The Work Projects Administration (WPA) was created in 1935 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, to provide work relief for the unemployed. Under the auspices of the WPA, the Federal Art Project (FAP) was created specifically to aid visual artists by...
J. Clarence Davies Collection
Bronx real estate mogul J. Clarence Davies (1868-1934) assembled his collection of New York City imagery over a forty year period, collecting voraciously and comprehensively. In 1929 he gave his collection to the City Museum. At the time, the gift was valued at...
Jacob A. Riis
Danish-born Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a journalist, social reformer, and social documentary photographer. He is best known for his 1890 book How the Other Half Lives, which brought public attention to New York's squalid housing, sweatshops, bars, and alleys. The...
Sophie Tucker Collection
Singer, comedian, and actress, Sophie Tucker was one of the most well-known entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Making her professional stage debut in 1907, Tucker’s big voice and even bigger stage presence were a hit on the vaudeville and burlesque...
Berenice Abbott
Born in Springfield, Ohio, Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) came to New York City at the age of 20, then began her career as a photographer during an extended time in Paris, where she worked as an assistant to photographer Man Ray. Returning to New York in 1929, she...
Byron Company
For half a century, the Byron Company (1892-1942) was one of New York City's preeminent commercial photography studios. Two major areas of specialization - stage and ship photography - provided steady work for the firm while it pursued thousands of other commissions....
Yiddish Theater
The City Museum holds a major collection related to theatrical productions performed or originated on New York's Yiddish stage. Highlights include works translated into Yiddish and performances of works originally written in Yiddish but translated into English....
Wurts Bros.
Thanks to generous grants from the Leon Levy Foundation, the Wurts Brothers Collection is now available online. This collection gives visual life to the growth of New York’s built environment in the 20th century. The studio, founded by brothers Norman and Lionel...
Fans
The City Museum holds an exceptional collection of hand fans, which comprises more than 700 objects dating from the 18th century through the 1920s and includes examples of painted, printed, brisé, and folding feather fans, as well as hand screens. This selection...
Currier and Ives
In 1857, Nathaniel Currier formed a partnership with James Merritt Ives, creating the printmaking firm of Currier & Ives. Located in lower Manhattan, the business was spectacularly prolific, producing an average of three or four new prints of a wide variety of...
Samuel H. Gottscho
As a young man, Samuel Gottscho (1875-1971) recorded the nighttime glories of Coney Island's early 20th-century amusement parks, but he became a professional success with the establishment of his own architectural photography firm in 1925. He received numerous...