NYPL, Digital Collections, Image

Digital Collections > Image Collections

	Africana & Black History http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=147 Items ranging from historical documents and rare visual materials to contemporary photo-journalism, relating to the entirety of African American history from the 16th century to the present; selected in the course of developing the NYPL website "African American Migration Experience."
	After Columbus: Four-hundred Years of Native American Portraiture http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=182 Prints and drawings by Simon van de Passe (1595-1647), George Catlin (1796-1872), and Karl Bodmer (1809-1893), dating from 1627 to the 1830s; Gelatin silver and platinum prints by photographers Edward S. Curtis (1868-1954), Karl E. Moon (1878-1948), and Frank A. Rinehart (1862-1928), and sculptor Frederic Allen Williams (1898-1958), from the late 1890s to 1927.
	American Popular Song Sheet Covers, 1890-1922 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=148 Covers of popular American sheet music from 1890-1922, the first decades of a much larger collection that stretches to the present.
	America's First Illustrator: Alexander Anderson http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=221 Scrapbooks containing wood-engravings by 19th-century master illustrator Alexander Anderson, considered one of America's earliest and finest wood-engravers.
	"America's National Game:" The Albert G. Spalding Collection of Early Baseball Photographs http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=198 Photographs, prints, drawings, caricatures, and printed illustrations from the personal collection of materials related to baseball and other sports gathered by the early baseball player and sporting-goods tycoon A. G. Spalding. This collection includes 19th-century studio portraits of players and teams of the day, rare images, photographs, and original drawings.
	Art from the George Arents Collection on Tobacco http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=202 Prints relating to tobacco, from an exceptional extra-illustrated copy of Fairholt's Tobacco: Its History and Lore (1859).
	Asia and the Pacific Rim in Early Prints and Photographs http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=169 Prints and photographs of East, Southeast and South Asia from the 18th century to the early 20th century, drawn from portfolios, photographic albums, photographically illustrated books and archival collections. Subjects include architecture, scenes of daily life, and portraits of major political, religious and artistic figures of the time.
	Authors: Photographs from the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=155 Portraits - prints and photographs - picturing more than 120 authors writing in English, primarily from the 1860s to the 1920s, and later, organized alphabetically by sitter.
	Books by Alvin Langdon Coburn http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=210 Photogravure portraits of artists, writers, statesmen and other public figures, primarily American and English, in photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn's 1913 Men of Mark (from 1904 to 1913) and his 1922 More Men of Mark (from 1913 to 1922).
	Cabinet Card Portraits in the Collection of Radical Publisher Benjamin R. Tucker http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=154 Portrait photographs, from about 1880-1900, chiefly albumen cabinet cards and cartes de visite, of radical figures, and a variety of statesmen, authors, artists, actresses and other notable, primarily European, cultural figures. The backs of these cards are also viewable.
	Changing New York: Photographs by Berenice Abbott, 1935-1938 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=160 Black and white photographs by Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) from her Changing New York Works Progress Administration/ Federal Art Project. The Library's collection holds about 80% of the project's 302 images; this presentation includes variant and discarded images, plus other work Abbott produced as a project employee.
	Charting North America: Maps from the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection and Others http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=149 Maps of North America from the earliest printed portrayals to the close of the 19th century; multiple versions and editions allow for historical comparisons.
	Cigarette Cards: ABCs http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=161 Nearly 600 series (totaling thousands of individual cards) whose titles begin with the first three letters of the alphabet, from before 1900 to the mid-20th century. Viewable front and back.
	Civil War Medical Care: Photographs from the United States Sanitary Commission Collection, 1861-1872 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=203 Photographs and drawings relating to the work, facilities and Civil War locales associated with the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC); forms Series XXXIII of the United States Sanitary Commission Records, 1861-1872.
	Claire Holt Collection of Indonesian Dance and Related Arts http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=174 Photographs of Indonesian costumes, theatrical performances, and dance movements taken by scholar Claire Holt and others, collected by her in travels through the region in the 1930s and later.
	"Classic 6:" New York City Apartment Building Living, 1880s-1910s http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=151 Elevation views and floor plans for middle and upper class apartment buildings from New York City's pre-World War I residential building boom.
	Classic Illustrated Zoologies and Related Works, 1550-1900 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=183 Illustrated books from the 17th century to the early 20th depicting the animals of the world. Based on the scholarly bibliography of the same title by Miriam Gross, published in Biblion, The Bulletin of The New York Public Library in 1994.
	Customs and Costume: Surveys and Examples of National Studies to 1900 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=162 P late books, portfolios of paintings and prints, and illustrated surveys on costume and customs of people around the world, principally in the 19th century.
	Dance in Photographs and Prints http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=216 Dance photographs from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The photographs range from publicity stills to professional photographers' vintage prints and feature dancers such as Ruth St. Denis.
	Detroit Publishing Company Postcards from the Leonard Lauder Postcard Collection http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=164 Postcards ca. 1898-1920s, featuring images of North American landscapes and cityscapes; views of well-known streets, buildings, historic monuments; natural scenery; industry, transportation; and daily life. Some series reproduce art works and illustrations.
	Dress and Fashion: Design and Manufacture http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=215 Rare and unusual published resources of interest to students of western dress and fashion from the 19th to the early 20th century. Includes historical surveys as well as manufacturers' booklets and sample swatch catalogs.
	"Drugstore Photographs, Or, A Trip Along the Yangtze River, 1999;" Lower Manhattan Block-by-Block by Dylan Stone http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=176 26,000 color snapshot photographs taken in 1999, recording the streetscape, block by block, of Manhattan south of Canal Street, and arranged in an archive by neighborhood and block.
	Dust Jackets from American and European Books, 1926-1947 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=157 Original specimens of book jackets from trade books acquired routinely by the Research Libraries.
	Early Landscape Photography of the American West http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=200 Large albumen prints from the 1860s and 1870s of American Western landscape. These include mammoth views of Yosemite Valley by Carleton E. Watkins and Charles L. Weed, the route of the Union Pacific Railroad through the Rocky Mountains by A.J. Russell, and Geographical surveys west of the one hundredth meridian (the Wheeler survey) by Timothy O'Sullivan and William Bell.
	Early Real Estate Insurance Maps of New York http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=442 Real estate maps of Manhattan and Brooklyn from the 1850s-1860s. Originated by William Perris and commonly called "fire insurance e maps," they show streets, blocks, tax lots, and use classifications plus earlier natural and manmade features.
	Ellis Island Photographs from the Collection of William Williams, Commissioner of Immigration, 1902-1913 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=165 These photographs relating to Ellis Island and immigration into the United States in the early 20th century include portraits of individual immigrants by Augustus Francis Sherman and views of the Ellis Island facility and its grounds by Edwin Levick and others.
	Empire and Regency: Decoration in the Age of Napoleon http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=167 Primary source illustrated pattern books, scrapbooks, and a set of original French goldsmith's drawings from the early 19th to early 20th-centuries featuring mainly interior decoration, furnishings, furniture patterns, and views relating to the Empire and Regency Styles.
	The Floating World: Japanese Color Woodcuts by Kitagawa Utamaro http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=204 Original prints by the Japanese painter and woodcut designer Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806).
	French 19th-Century Bindings in the Collection of William A. Spencer http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=158 Fine French book bindings of dozens of titles, some in multiple volumes, principally from the last third of the 19th century into the first decade of the 20th, offer a window into the original bequest by collector William Augustus Spencer (1855-1912) of more than 200 volumes.
	Gertrude Stein: Part of a Life in Pictures by Carl Van Vechten http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=281 Photographs by Carl Van Vechten: includes Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas at home in France; plus portraits of Stein in America and of performers associated with Stein's 1934 opera Four Saints in Three Acts.
	Henry George Collection: Illustrations and Photographs http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=214 Page images presenting the contents of a scrapbook titled "The Single Tax," containing photographs and caricatures of Henry George (1839-1897), the founder of the 19th-century reform 'single tax' movement.
	Historical and Public Figures: A General Portrait File to the 1920s http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=242 Portraits of a wide-range of public figures, including political, religious, cultural, literary and artistic personalities, with an emphasis on the 16th through the 19th centuries. Includes some original prints, but consists principally of printed pictures.
	Icons and Images of Cultures: Plate Books from the Russian Empire, Early Soviet Russia, and Eastern Europe, 1730-1935 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=194 Important illustrated books, often in their entirety, published in Russia and adjacent areas. Most notably, includes the several series issued by 19th-century collector and scholar, Dimitrii Aleksandrovich Rovinskii.
	Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=172 Illuminations selected from the 1,156 extant pages of the Padua Ashkenazi Mahzor, a medieval Jewish festival prayer book; Hamburg Haggadah (1731); Ketubbot (1638); and Xanten Bible.
	Illustrated Classics of Engineering from the William Barclay Parsons Collection and Others http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=168 Images, from the 16th to the 20th century, that draw upon a wide range of published engineering rarities and related original holdings. The selection highlights a diverse range of illustration primarily in civil and mechanical engineering.
	Images of African Americans in the 19th Century http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/images_aa19/ SEARCHABLE: Five hundred prints, photographs and illustrations present sixteen topical chapters such as "Cultural Expression," "Family," "Organizations & Institutions," "Portraits" and "Religion."
	In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience http://www.inmotionaame.org SEARCHABLE: A sweeping narrative from the transatlantic slave trade to the Great Migration, from the Western migration to the contemporary immigration of Caribbeans, Haitians, and sub-Saharan Africans. Includes 25,000 pages of texts, rare visual materials, maps, contemporary photojournalism, and lesson plans.
	Joseph Muller Collection of Music and Other Portraits http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=181 Images from the 16th to the early 20th-centuries, including engravings, lithographs, and drawings of composers and musicians. This collection also includes portraits of actors, heads of state, music patrons, philosophers, poets, printers, and writers, among others, amassed by Joseph Muller, a private collector.
	Lewis Wickes Hine: Documentary Photographs, 1905-1938 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=175 Silver gelatin photographic prints depicting American social conditions and labor, including immigrants at Ellis Island and construction of the Empire State Building, Hine's principal subjects.
	The Luso-Hispanic New World in Early Prints and Photographs http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=208 Photographs and prints, in albums and rare published volumes, present the territories and countries associated with Portugal and Spain in the New World, from Mexico to Argentina, and parts of the Caribbean.
	Marquees, 1997-2001: New York City Theatre Photographs by Christopher Frith http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=177 Color photographs of Broadway theater marquees and theater facades from 1997 to 2001 by Christopher J. Frith.
	Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from Western Europe http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=173 Manuscript pages, and associated illuminations, based upon NYPL's contribution of 259 manuscripts to "The Digital Scriptorium," a multi-institutional image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts.
	Metropolis: New York City Water and Transit Infrastructure in Photographs http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=186 Images, primarily original photographs, on the themes of traffic, transit, and water. The digital collection includes mass transit proposals and projects, dating from 1867; the multi-county Catskill Aqueduct system that still supplies the city's water; and the pioneering Holland Tunnel for vehicular traffic under the Hudson River.
	The Middle East in Early Prints and Photographs http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=179 Prints and photographs contained in works from the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century. These include books illustrated with prints or photographs, photograph albums, and archival compilations.
	Mid-Manhattan Library Picture Collection Online http://digital.nypl.org/mmpco 30,000 digitized images from books, magazines and newspapers as well as original photographs, prints and postcards, mostly created before 1923. NOTE: Images on this site are no longer updated - for newer Picture Collection images, see Digital Gallery
	Miss Frank E. Buttolph American Menu Collection, 1856-1930 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=159 Menus beginning with the oldest items in the collection from 1851. The collection is strongest for the period between 1890 and 1910. Organization is primarily chronological by date or range of dates.
	Mountjoy Prison Portraits of Irish Independence: Photograph Albums in the Thomas A. Larcom Collection http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=180 Salt and albumen print photographs in two albums, of prisoners confined in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, in August 1857 and November 1866.
	Nature Illustrated: Flowers, Plants, and Trees, 1550-1900 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=184 Art and scientific prints, illustrating medicinal plants, spectacular garden flowers, exotic tropical blooms, trees and ferns. Includes many different printmaking techniques, from woodcuts to stipple engravings to color-printed lithographs.
	A New Nation: The Thomas Addis Emmet Collection of Illustrations Relating to the American Revolution and Early United States History http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=166 Original prints, drawings, watercolors, and printed book illustrations relating to early American history, primarily from the period leading to the American Revolution through the early years of the nation.
	NYPL Digital Gallery http://digitalgallery.nypl.org Over 600,000 images digitized from The Library's collections including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.
	Ocean Flowers: Anna Atkins's Cyanotypes of British Algae http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=188 Images of algae specimens, title pages, contents lists, and other texts, in cyantoype (blueprint), plus inscriptions and parts' wrappers.
	On Stage and Screen: Photograph File of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=201 Photographs of actors and actresses, in character and as themselves, from the 19th century to recent years.
	Ornament and Pattern: Pre-Victorian to Art Deco http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=163 Images from nearly 100 volumes on decorative art and surface ornament, mainly portfolios of plates, pattern books, and scrapbook compilations.
	"The Pageant of America" Photograph Archive http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=187 From the 1860s to the 1920s, these original and copy photographs - and albumen, platinum and silver gelatin prints - are presented in original archival order. Two series, "published" and "unpublished" photographs, exist for each of the fifteen volumes published in the 15-volume series The Pageant of America: A Pictorial History of the United States commemorating the nation's sesquicentennial in 1926.
	"Penny Plains" and "Two-pence Coloured:" English Theatrical Portraits 1799-1847 in the William Appleton Collection http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=152 Toy theatre prints portraying plays and actors in character, from the early- to mid-19th century; these prints comprise the visual materials in the William Appleton collection of theatrical correspondence and ephemera, 1697-1930.
	Photographic Views of New York City, 1870s-1970s http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=219 More than 50,000 New York City archival photographs (and their captioned versos) from the 1870s-1970s arranged by borough and street; the majority are exterior building views and neighborhood scenes from the 1910s-1940s.
	Photographs of General Motors Cars and Trucks, 1902-1938 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=241 Images from public relations materials, principally black and white photographs and accompanying press releases, for the automotive and truck lines of General Motors, during the years 1902-1938.
	Pictures of Science: 700 Years of Scientific and Medical Illustration http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=197 Iimages from the 13th through the early 20th century, in the fields of astronomy, chemistry, geology, mathematics, medicine, and physics, as represented by manuscript illuminations, engravings, lithographs, and photographs.
	Picturing America, 1497-1899: Prints, Maps, and Drawings bearing on the New World Discoveries and on the Development of the Territory that is now the United States http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=190 Original prints, drawings, and maps, selected primarily from The Phelps Stokes Collection, featuring views of American towns and cities and representations of historical events, scenes, places, and battles relating to the United States, from 1497 to 1899.
	Posters of the Russian Civil War, 1918-1922 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=195 Posters, placards, and broadsides comprising one of the largest assemblages of such posters outside of Russia.
	Presenting The New York Public Library: Drawings, Photographs and Prints http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=189 Photographs, lantern slides and postcards documenting historical New York Public Library buildings, collections, and programs including the New York Free Circulating Library. Major subjects include the Astor and Lenox Library buildings, Branch Libraries in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island, and the construction of the Library's landmark Central Building.
	Publisher's Proofs and Related Work from L. Prang & Company http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=192 Chromolithographs of publisher proofs by Louis Prang & Company in seventeen scrapbooks, and advertising cards for Prang and other firms in six scrapbooks.
	Russia and Eastern Europe in Rare Photographs, 1860- 1945 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=193 Original Russian and East European photographs from the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries, in more than 150 albums.
	Samuel Putnam Avery Print Collection and Related Works http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=196 Etchings, lithographs, and drawings by prominent 19th-century printmakers. They represent the Print Collection's complete holdings of Félix Bracquemond, Félix Buhot, Francisco Goya, Charles Jacque, Edouard Manet, Charles Méryon, and Camille Pissarro.
	Staten Island in Vintage Postcards http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=199 Postcards depicting the buildings, scenery, and daily life of Staten Island from the late 19th-century until well into the 20th-century.
	Streetscape and Townscape of Metropolitan New York City, 1860-1942 http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=243 Prints and photographs offering the complete content of a wide range of selected image collections and illustrated monographs: Hudson River mansions, including Washington Irving's home and vicinity in the 1860s; street views by Alice Austen from 1896; a panorama of Fifth Avenue from 1911, and more.
	Taking the Wheel: Manufacturers' Catalogs from the First Decade of American Automobiles http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=153 Photomechanical reproductions from the pages of motor vehicle manufacturers' catalogs from 1909, in the first decade of the automobile industry. Primarily monochrome, interspersed with surprisingly lavish color plates, the images include parts diagrams, engine works, and model inventory.
	Theatre Productions and Players, 1900-1957: Vandamm Studio Photographs http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=205 The items in this digital presentation are a sampling of an archive of more than 75,000 images of theatrical personalities and productions. Images in the current presentation represent glass plate and acetate negatives primarily.
	Turn of the Century Posters http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=212 American posters printed from 1893 through the first years of the 20th-century. The collection represents the inception and heyday of magazine, book, and newspaper posters of the last decade of the 19th-century, and well into the 20th-century.
	Uniforms and Regimental Regalia: The Vinkhuijzen Collection of Military Costume Illustration http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=206 Prints, drawings, watercolors, and printed book and magazine illustrations of military costume as well as military medals, regalia, insignia, coats of arms, and regimental flags, from most times and places except the United States.
	United States in Stereo: In the Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=361 Stereoscopic views, or stereographs, were a varied and popular form of entertainment in the 19th century. This presentation includes over 25,000 United States stereoscopic views in the Dennis Collection, front and back, organized by State or Subject Series.
	Walt Whitman Manuscripts http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=462 Manuscripts, printed works, and portraits of Walt Whitman (1819-1892), the leading American poet of the 19th century.
	William Blake: Illustrated Books http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=156 Three original books in "relief etching" by William Blake, who composed the texts, designed the texts and decorations, and printed the pages: America: A Prophecy (1793 [1794?]), Europe: A Prophecy (1794), and Milton (1804 [i.e. 1808?]).
	World War I Photograph Albums and Postcards http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=211 Amateur albums of drawings and photographs by Americans serving in France; a series of German photographic postcards; and a French automaker's published album.
	Yiddish Theatre Placards: Buenos Aires and New York http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=222 Placards from the two leading centers of Yiddish theater in their respective heydays: New York, 1890s-1910s, and Buenos Aires, 1930s-1940s.
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