New York City Municipal Archives Digital Galleries
The Department of Records and Information Services preserves and provides public access to historical and contemporary records and information about New York City government.
The Municipal Library and Archives are open by appointment only.
For Family history research, please contact familyhistory@records.nyc.gov.
For general research inquiries, please contact research@records.nyc.gov.
tax photograph collection
The NYC Municipal Archives added over 720,000 photographs from the 1940s Tax Photograph collection to their digital collections. The collection consists of photographs of every building in the 5 boroughs, ca. 1940, taken for tax assessment purposes. Read about how we did it in this blog, and go behind the scenes with the 1940s photographers here.
The New York Times just published a story about the 1980s Tax Photograph collection. See more of those photographs here.
FROM THE VAULTS
Explore highlights from our collections.
Exhibits
Visit a virtual exhibit celebrating the 20th Anniversary edition of Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives—A Pictorial History of Working People in New York City, with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives and from the young workers who participated in the panel discussion on May 14, 2020.