- 2,130 photographs, including glass plate negatives, cellulose nitrate negatives, and prints, produced by Fritz E. Bjorkman and most likely collected by Herman Blumenthal for visual research. The photographs depict a large number of places, including New York, Ohio, Maryland, Florida, California, the U.S. Southwest, and Mexico. One particular focus of the collection is parades, including photographs of an Armistice Day parade, a Liberty Day parade, parades commemorating the second and third Liberty Loans, and a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Along with many family photographs, the collection also includes photographs of monuments, memorials, buildings, canals, houses, and battleships. Herman A. Blumenthal worked as an art director and production designer for the 20th Century Fox film studio in Beverly Hills, California and received Academy Awards for his work in “Cleopatra” (1963) and “Hello, Dolly!” (1969). His other film work includes “The Three Faces of Eve” (1957), “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1959), “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” (1961), “What’s Up , Doc?” (1972), and “Westworld” (1973). Fritz E. Bjorkman was an electrical engineer born in Sweden who emigrated to the United States with his parents.
- The Lower East Side Photograph Collection spans the period from March to June 1901 and contains 63 gelatin silver photographs of buildings, on and around Delancey Street, before they were demolished during construction of the Williamsburg Bridge. The photographs show the markets, shops, saloons, and other businesses in the area; signs for many of these are in Yiddish. The images also capture the residents of the neighborhood, including several children, on the street and peering from windows of tenements. This neighborhood survey provides a unique view of life in this predominately Jewish neighborhood. All but two of the photographs are by N.L. Coe. The remainder are by A.J. Drummond.
- George R. Fardon (1806-1886) was an English photographer who operated in San Francisco, CA and Victoria, BC. The album consists of thirty images of San Francisco in 1856, published as a portfolio by Herre & Bauer. The San Francisco album is considered the first published compilation of photographs of any American city and the major work of Fardon’s career. This is one of ten known variant copies.
- Collection of 133 silver gelatin photographs of Manhattan, approximately 1938 to 1960, taken by amateur photographer Arthur W. Grumbine. Part of the collection consists of street scenes and views of individual buildings taken in various neighborhoods around the city from the 1930s through the 1960s, and include images of street vendors, construction sites, signs and storefronts, building interiors, aerial and riverfront views, Times Square, Washington Square, South Street, and vignettes depicting life on the streets of Manhattan's Little Italy, Chinatown, and Lower East Side. The remainder of the collection consists principally of photographs of subjects such as elevated trains, ferries and riverboats, horse drawn carts, and a single image of a New York City streetcar. Also included are a handful of photographs of miscellaneous and unidentified subjects, as well as two photo prints of pen and ink drawings executed and photographed by Grumbine.
- This collection consists of 43 photographs, mounted on 44 loose album pages of gray paper (one photograph is missing), of New York City newsboys (or "newsies"), probably taken by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee circa 1908-1912. All photographs are captioned with the subject's name, age, address, school, whether they had a badge or not, and the location of the photograph.
- The Burr McIntosh Photograph Collection consists of 596 glass plate negatives and 3,822 photographic prints dating from 1898 to 1910. Burr McIntosh (1862-1942) distinguished himself in many careers, including those of actor, reporter, publisher, lecturer, cinematographer, and radio pioneer, as well as photographer. While many of these endeavors were short-lived, they gained him prestige and popularity among the stylish set, including prominent figures in the arts, society, and politics, many of whom were his friends and acquaintances. Most of the photographs are celebrity portraits from the first decade of the twentieth century. The collection also depicts society and sporting events, and contains 41 views of Cuba taken around the time of the Spanish-American War, as well as over 80 photographs documenting William Howard Taft’s good will trip to the Philippines in 1905. The digitization of the photographic prints in this collection was funded by a grant from the Metropolitan New York Library Council.
- The Harris Pierce Photograph Collection spans the period from 1888-1900 and contains 300 gelatin silver photographs of residences and businesses during the grading and improvement of streets in the Bronx. Little is known about Harris Pierce, but his stamp appears on the verso of the photographs and gives his address as 1921 Oostdorp Ave and his profession as 'Photographer'. Trow's New York City Directory lists his profession from 1883-1908 as 'Stenographer' at various addresses on Nassau Street, with his home in the West Farms area of the Bronx. The photographs appear to have been made as evidence in supporting the cases of claimants filing for damages against the city. They include views of the construction of sewers, construction sites, street improvements and grading, residences, vegetable gardens, children, churches, and businesses such as grocery stores, brewers and liquor stores, bakers, barbers, plumbers, and real estate offices. The photographs also include views of the New York Central Harlem Line and train stations such as the Tremont Station, social clubs such as the Suburban Club, the Artistic Bronze Co., the American Pie Baking Co., and stables and feed stores. Gift of Herbert Berger-Hershkowitz, 6 July 2007; gift of Leo Hershkowitz, 2008.
- The collection contains 403 photographic negatives produced circa 1920-1980 (bulk 1920-1950) by commercial photographers on behalf of The Boys’ Club of New York ("BCNY"). The majority depict young BCNY members engaged in a variety of activities, either at the club’s Tompkins Square Building (later renamed Harriman Clubhouse) or at the William Carey Camp in Jamesport, New York. Many of the photographs were published in annual reports, where they served to promote the organization’s work.
- The 904 glass plate and film negatives in this collection were taken by Drucker & Baltes for the General Outdoor Advertising Company, a billboard company that was formed in 1925 through the merger of the Fulton Group and Thomas Cusack Company. The photographs record the advertisers who bought billboard space at thirteen sites in Manhattan and two sites in the Bronx. The views focus on signs but also show surrounding buildings, elevated railroads, and street activity at such heavily traveled intersections as Broadway and Seventh Avenue (Times Square), Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, Sixth Avenue at 27th Street, Eight Avenue at 110th Street, 125th Street in Harlem, and Third Avenue at 166th Street in the Bronx. The same sites appear repeatedly, sometimes monthly, during the 1920s and into the Great Depression. The photographs reveal changes in both the neighborhoods and in the advertising for many products, among them Chesterfield cigarettes, Wrigley's chewing gum, and Pepsodent toothpaste.
- The extensive photograph collections in the New-York Historical Society Library's Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections are particularly strong in portraits and documentary images of New York-area buildings and street scenes from 1839 to 1945, although contemporary photography continues to be collected. Both professional and amateur photographers (many unidentified) are represented. The selection of 50 images in this digital collection focuses on twentieth-century photographs that were chosen especially for their artistic merit, featuring the work of Jessie Tarbox Beals, Irving Browning, Arthur D. Chapman, Bruce Davidson, Arnold Eagle, Andreas Feininger, Raymond Germann, Bernard Gotfryd, Charles Gilbert Hine, Frederick Kelly, Rebecca Lepkoff, Chris Mackey, Ruth Orkin, Harold Roth, Kenneth Siegel, and Erika Stone.