Thursday, May 21, 2015

Immerse yourself in archival photos of NYC



The New York Public Library today unveiled OldNYC.org, an interactive map that brings its digitized collection of vintage photos to life by street/avenue/neighborhoods.

Per OldNYC:

This site provides an alternative way of browsing the NYPL's incredible Photographic Views of New York City, 1870s-1970s collection. Its goal is to help you discover the history behind the places you see every day.

And, if you're lucky, maybe you'll even discover something about New York's rich past that you never knew before!

Where did these images come from?
The images all come from the New York Public Library's Milstein Collection. While many photographers contributed to the collection, the majority of its images are the work of Percy Loomis Sperr, who documented changes to the city from the late 1920s to the early 1940s.

We clicked on Avenue A and East 10th Street...



... and found this shot (and more) from 1934...



Enjoy your Memorial Weekend. (And if you don't like historical photos, then....)
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12 comments:

  1. GojiraMay 21, 2015 at 4:31 PM

    If you don't like historical photos, then move to Hell in a handcar!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Laura Goggin PhotographyMay 21, 2015 at 5:14 PM

    Thanks, Grieve. Because you posted this, I will be spending the entire long holiday weekend clicking through this thing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 21, 2015 at 5:14 PM

    Thank you for this. A worthy exploration.

    I love and hate historical photos. Because thereby you may understand our times as both progress...and regress.

    - East Villager

    ReplyDelete
  4. CurlyZipMay 21, 2015 at 5:21 PM

    Incredible. Thanks! It's tempting to do some transcribing. And I already found an error in Brooklyn. This is so much fun.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 21, 2015 at 9:47 PM

    Bring back the streetcars! So much nicer than buses.

    - East Villager

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 21, 2015 at 10:13 PM

    It is amazing how you are so perfect. Grievey, grievey, grivey. Like snuffalufagous but with a blog and not on a television show that has a letter of the day.
    This is in my top 5 favorites from EVG.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMay 22, 2015 at 12:08 AM

    The photographer of the blocks I have been photo walking for the past hour is named "Percy". This link is fun for so many reasons. (Percy , I love that name)Also interesting to see who donated picture to library. I am so happy for the archiving.

    ReplyDelete
  8. GojiraMay 22, 2015 at 9:52 AM

    Grieve - THANK YOU!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousMay 22, 2015 at 12:21 PM

    Cool tool! Finally, they make their collection easier to browse!

    ReplyDelete
  10. GiovanniMay 22, 2015 at 1:23 PM

    This is very cool. New York looks so much more
    civilized back then. And to think a hundred years from now when people look back at our pictures most of them will be naked selfies.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousMay 22, 2015 at 2:54 PM

    Giovanni,

    The pictures are particularly interesting to me because they show a civilized order which didn't reflect the horrible living conditions that most in the LES suffered through pre-WW2. Time for me to stop by the Tenement Museum again to see their newest installments.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Scuba DivaMay 22, 2015 at 9:08 PM

    CurlyZip said:

    "And I already found an error in Brooklyn."

    That's right; it's supposed to be "Breukelen," or "the broken land."

    ReplyDelete

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