The Croton and Catskill Systems: Meeting the Demand for Water in New York City
Our earlier blog post illustrated the attempts city and private officials made to supply Manhattan with water, culminating in the successful flow of water from Westchester County to the city … Continue reading
Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company
South Brooklyn isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think of perq-filled employment in the early parts of the last century. If you happened to be working … Continue reading
John Stephenson Company Streetcars
New York would not be the city it is today without the comprehensive public transportation infrastructure developed during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the major players of this … Continue reading
The Great Bygone Museum Tour
Ladies and Gentleman! Step this way! My dear blog readers, please accompany me on a tour to discover the unique and marvelous history of museums in New York City. Be … Continue reading
Notable City Residences
8,336,697 people lived in New York City as of July 2012 according to the United States Census Bureau, and a lucky few of them live in fascinating places. Here we … Continue reading
Power, corruption, and Tammany Hall: sketches of lesser known New York City mayors, 1869-1913
Today the 109th mayor of New York City will be elected. In honor of this occasion, we delved into our portrait archive to find some of the most fascinating mayors … Continue reading
Street clocks – how New Yorkers kept time on the go.
Street clocks once dominated the sidewalks of New York City. First introduced in the 1860s, the clocks quickly became popular with businesses looking for novel ways to advertise and with … Continue reading
It’s a Hard Knock Life: The City as Playground
The image of a group of kids shooting craps in the street has for decades been a quintessential scene of growing up in New York. The history of street games … Continue reading
Alfred E. Smith – the people’s politician?
This week, we have a guest post from one of the interns who worked with us over the summer, Karis Raeburn, who has since returned to Dayton, Ohio, where she … Continue reading
What skating rink is that? Who lived in that house? Solving mysteries in the collection.
From time to time, the Collections Department receives inquiries from the public about the information associated with images we’ve cataloged online. The data in the catalog records is pulled from … Continue reading
The Central Park Casino
It’s 1929 in an Art Deco ballroom. Dancers glide around, dimly reflected in the black glass ceiling while outside on the terrace, the sound of champagne corks popping intersperses with … Continue reading
What lies beneath New York- the Minetta Brook
It is difficult to view this image of Manhattan from 1953 and imagine it as the idyllic island of Mannahatta that Henry Hudson first stepped onto in September 1609, but … Continue reading
“145 Bluebells of Scotland and a Swiss Cheese to You!” – Corresponding with Carl Van Vechten
In May of 2013, with the generous support of the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation, the Museum of the City of New York hired Project Archivist Boni Joi Koelliker to begin … Continue reading
MCNY Blog: New York Stories 