A few years ago when I started getting into the history behind ghost signs, I really didn’t know where to begin my research. A google search was my first step, but I knew there were more specific and meaty sites I could visit. So I began bookmarking and categorizing the sites I felt I could visit that would give me a starting point. If you are into ghost signage and NYC history in general I hope the below list is of service to you! And please note—almost all photo collections I have listed are for educational purposes. Most organizations will request that personal, scholarly, or commercial usage be cleared with that organization first. As of now I have at least given photo credits to the images I have shown.

Ghost Signs Blogs • NYC History Blogs • City, State and Country Archives • Libraries & Historical Societies, • Museums • NYC Neighborhood & Borough Specific • Newspaper & Magazine Archives • NYC Architecture, Digital Photo Collections • Digital Photo Collections-flickr • Digital Photo Collections-Facebook • Photographers • Retro Blogs • Landmarks Designation Reports • Transportation • Signs & Typography • Miscellaneous/Niche • Vintage Photos & Film Licensing Services • Reddit Groups

Ghost Signs Blogs

Walter Grutchfield has three web links that I find helpful—one is a list of images, second is a list of what’s new to his site and the third is his “survey all of the signs in New York City from 14th Street to 42nd Street.”

On the topic of Walter Grutchfield here’s great New York Times article from 2004. Calling him “an archaeologist of signs” it tells how he “is part of a small but connected national effort to record the ephemera and variety of signage.”

Frank Jump’s blog is a companion to his book “Fading Ads of New York City.” Click around to see his great finds in NYC and beyond.

NYC History Blogs

Forgotten New York is run by Kevin Walsh who in my opinion is one of NYC’s preeminent urban archaeologists. The site pulls together what he calls “the artifacts of a long-gone New York.” You’ll find posts on ghost signs and faded ads, lampposts, subways and trains, neighborhood walking tours and so much more. He has a great book called “Forgotten New York”, of course, which I suggest you check out to read all about the hidden NYC gems he highlights.

Ephemeral New York is a blog by Esther Crain chronicling “a constantly reinvented city through photos, newspaper archives, and other scraps and artifacts that have been edged into New York’s collective remainder bin.” She has fantastic book called “The Gilded Age in New York, 1870-1910” which she says is “one of my favorite periods in the city’s history.”

Daytonian in Manhattan is run by Tom Miller which tells “the stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.” Here you’ll find out not only about the architectural details of a building but usually juicy details about the architects, homeowners and occupants themselves! He’s also written a book called Seeking New York: The Stories Behind the Historic Architecture of Manhattan—One Building at a Time

The Bowery Boys are Greg Young and Tom Meyers. The blog is a companion to their popular podcast Bowery Boys Podcast. They are enthusiastic chroniclers of NYC history covering topics like landmarks, neighborhoods, and my favorite, mysterious stories! They are also the authors of the book Adventures in Old New York “a time-traveling journey into a past that lives simultaneously besides the modern city.” And if they weren’t busy enough they host walking tours which due to the pandemic are currently “virtual tours and private in-person walking tours for small groups.”

Jeremiah’s Vanishing’s New York is the companion blog to the book “Vanishing New York.” The tagline sums it up, “A.K.A. The Book of Lamentations: A Bitterly Nostalgic Look at a City in the Process of Going Extinct”

6sqft “delivers the latest on New York City neighborhoods, things to do, cool apartments, architecture, and history, along with the ideas that are shaping your city.” The have a history section where you can explore a variety of articles like The Harlem Hellfighters: African-American New Yorkers were some of WWI’s most decorated soldiers, 356 years ago, New Amsterdam became New York City, Before Nathan’s there was Feltman’s: The history of the Coney Island hot dog and more!

City, State and Country Archives

The New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery is my go-to resource. With “over 1.6 million images.” Selected from the world-class historical collections of the Archives, most of these unique photographs, maps, documents, motion picture and audio recordings are being made accessible for the first time.” The 1940s and 1980s tax photos for all 5 boroughs can be found here along with photos from a bunch of other collections. Poke around and I guarantee you will get lost for hours!

The New York State Archives Digital Collection—A wealth of information including family papers, photographs, maps, and more. Collections include everything from the surviving records of the Dutch colony of New Netherland to the World Trade Center collection and exhibit files. They also have a Flickr account with a number of albums to explore.

The National Archives are the nation’s records keepers. They have “approximately 10 billion pages of textual records; 12 million maps, charts, and architectural and engineering drawings; 25 million still photographs and graphics; 24 million aerial photographs; 300,000 reels of motion picture film; 400,000 video and sound recordings; and 133 terabytes of electronic data.” Phew, that’s a lot! Start with a general search and you’ll be amazed at what you can find 🙂

The Internet Archive is a “digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.” They currently have “475 billion web pages, 28 million books and texts, 14 million audio recordings (including 220,000 live concerts), 6 million videos (including 2 million Television News programs), 3.5 million images, and 580,000 software programs. I confess that I have barely delved into this amazing resource!

Libraries & Historical Societies

The New York Public Library Digital Collections has over 900,207 items digitized from the New York Public Library’s collections. I usually explore their photography collection; usually with a keyword search but sometimes I just like to get lost in a particular collection.

The Brooklyn Public Library digital collection “offers a selection of more than 20,000 historical photographs from the Brooklyn Collection and audio and video recordings created by the Brooklyn Public library and other sources.” They also house “smaller photography collections by commercial and amateur photographers.” Being a Brooklynite I visit this site often.

The Queens Public Library digital collection site is a mystery! Slow to load and frustrating to use I nonetheless like to periodically visit and browse collections like their WPA Artwork archive and Eugene Armbruster drawing and photographs portfolio.

The Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Collection “include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.”

The Digital Public Library of America collaborates with partners to “accelerate innovative tools and ideas that empower and equip libraries to make information more accessible.” Partners include the National Archives, Smithsonian, Library of Congress and many more.

The Center for Brooklyn History formerly known as The Brooklyn Historical Society recently joined forces with the Brooklyn Public Library. They have now become the “the most expansive collection of Brooklyn history in the world.” Their photography collection “document Brooklyn and Long Island from the 1850s to the present.” My favorite is the Edna Huntington photo collection from the 1940s—she was their Head Librarian from 1936 until 1960.

The New York Historical Society features ” highlights from the collections of paintings, drawings, photographs, manuscripts, broadsides, maps, and other materials that reveal the depth and breadth of over two centuries of collecting.” Their collection is a favorite of mine to explore!

New York Heritage is research portal dedicated to the people, places and institutions of New York State. “The collections in New York Heritage represent a broad range of historical, scholarly, and cultural materials held in libraries, museums, and archives throughout the state. Collection items include photographs, letters, diaries, directories, maps, books, and more.”

Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York (DCMNY) “provides online access to digital collections of libraries, archives, museums and historical societies located in and around New York City. The collections include photographs, maps, letters, postcards, manuscripts, scrapbooks, programs from events, catalogues, memorabilia and ephemera.” A sampling of their diverse collection includes Brooklyn Public Library, Fulton Street Trade Cards, LGBT Community Center, Bar Guides Collection, and Maritime College, Sailors’ Snug Harbor Archives.

Historic New England is “the oldest and largest regional heritage organization in the nation.” Not only is their photography collection online but you can explore other collections like architecture, ephemera, textiles and more. I like to start with a simple “New York City” search in their photography collection.

Museums

The Museum of the City of New York’s online collection is my favorite online resource. Their collections contain from photos from Berenice Abbott, Jacob Riis, the Byron Company, Stanley Kubrick and so many more!

The Tenement Museum’s photo archive features images of the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York from the 1860s through today. I like to click through their “random images” tab to explore their collection.

The New York Transit Museum’s online collections are great for subway and train buffs but also if you are trying to research ghost signs which were strategically placed to catch the eyes of passengers on elevated trains or trams and trolleys.

NYC Neighborhood & Borough Specific

Village Preservation “works to document, celebrate, and preserve the special architectural and cultural heritage of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo.” Their historic image archive consists of several different collections “assembled over the years through generous donations.” I love going through their collections and getting lost in the Village of years past!

Inside Greenwich Village: A New York City Neighborhood, 1898-1918, by Gerald W. McFarland, is a book published by University of Massachusetts Press Books. The book explores how “Greenwich Village has long been known as a center of bohemianism, home to avant-garde artists, political radicals, and other nonconformists who challenged the reigning orthodoxies of their time. Yet a century ago the Village was a much different kind of place: a mixed-class, multiethnic neighborhood teeming with the energy and social tensions of a rapidly changing America.” You can view it online and download it should you wish to.

The East New York Project is a personal blog run by Riccardo Gomes. It is an online archive of his childhood neighborhood of East New York, Brooklyn. It is a “collaborative effort, and contributions in the form of stories, pictures, and even video.”

The SoHo Memory Project is run by Yukie Ohta and is dedicated to preserving “SoHo’s past so that present generations understand our neighborhood’s rich history and can make informed decisions as we shape its future.” It is a fantastic blog about growing up in in SoHo in the 1970s and 80s. As you can imagine it as a very different neighborhood from the SoHo we know now! It includes first person stories of working artists, empty streets, dumpster diving and more plus many great photos!

Tribeca Citizen, a neighborhood news site, has a Historical Tribeca: A Scrapbook section compiled from photos sent in from readers along with photos from the NY Public Library, Tax Photos, and more.

LandmarkWest! is a non-profit working to “achieve landmark status for individual buildings and historic districts on the Upper West Side .” They have a building database you can search as well as a Upper West Side Landmarks and Historic Districts map.

A personal blog by Maggie Blanck contains wealth of information on the history of Red Hook, Brooklyn. The focus is mostly on the late 1800s-early 1900s. Sections include streets, the waterfront, taverns and restaurants, and more.

The Parkslopian is a blog about growing up in Park Slope Brooklyn as well as “Iconic Things Of The 50’s-60’s-70’s-80’s.” It hasn’t been updated since 2018 and is not the easiest site to navigate but worth exploring categories like “Brooklyn Pics”, “Slope Photos”, and “Brooklyn Stores” among others.

Old Brooklyn Heights is a blog by Jeremy Lechtzin who co-created 80s.nyc. The site explores “the history of Brooklyn Heights through architecture and data.”

Gowanus Canal History is a page within the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club website. It’s a great primer on the history on the canal and surrounding neighborhood from the 1600s to today.

This is a site I came across with a history of the South Side of Union Square, New York. It’s broken up into two parts and it is extremely thorough with old maps, artwork, and newspaper clippings. It’s a personal project of someone named William Minifie and I am grateful for all the work he put into his study.

The History of East and West Broadway—this is an article from The New York Times which answers the question: “Why does Manhattan have a West Broadway and an East Broadway, neither of which intersects the ‘real’ Broadway?”

A 1941 documentary and travelogue of 1949 Brooklyn is up on YouTube. It provides glimpses of long-gone institutions like Ebbets Filed, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle building and Brooklyn Navy Yard.

A number of Brooklyn Telephone Directories and School Newspapers from 1943 through 1964 are available online from the Brooklyn Public Library collection on The Internet Archive.

Newspaper & Magazine Archives

The Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Newsstand is a free database which provides access to archives of the The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841 – 1963), Brooklyn Life (1890 – 1924), and Brooklyn Life and Activities of Long Island Society (1924 – 1931). My favorite discovery is the “Old Timer’s Letters” section of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle where readers write in looking for old friends and neighbors as well as reminiscing on a Brooklyn of fields and farms, trolleys and horse-drawn wagons, along with many other memories of a Brooklyn long past. Please note—you may need a log-in for this archive.

Time Machine is The New York Times online digital archive. “Over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared.” Note—this is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.

Google Books has an incomplete archive for New York Magazine. Here you’ll find issues from 1968 through 1997. I especially love getting lost in the issues from the early eighties!

Google Books also has an incomplete archive for The Village Voice. It starts with one issue from 1955 and goes up to 1978 with many missing issues. It picks up again with an issue from 1982, one from 1983, and a few handfuls more up until 2004. The mid 1970s appears to be the most robust section.

The Library of Congress’ Chronicling America is an archive of historic American newspapers from 1789-1963. You can search by State, Ethnicity, and Language. Currently 19 newspapers from New York are available for viewing including some of NYC most well known penny presses—The New York Herald, The New York Tribune, and The Sun.

East Village Eye was a monthly magazine of popular and avant-garde culture running from May 1979 to January of 1987. The magazine was not on my radar until recently but I was completely engrossed in the handful of issues they have online.

NYC Architecture

In the NYC blogs section I mentioned Daytonian in Manhattan and The Bowery Boys, both good architectural resources but below I have listed some more architecture-specific links that I find useful.

From The New York Times there’s Streetscapes—The history of New York City architecture, real estate and urban development and the archive of Michael Kimmelman, their architecture critic. Again, you will need a home delivery or digital subscription to access The New York Times archives.

Urban Omnibus is a publication of the The Architectural League of New York. They are “dedicated to observing, understanding, and shaping the city.”

Office for Metropolitan History was founded in 1975 by Christopher Gray, former columnist of The New York Times Streetscapes, “provides research on New York City buildings, and embraces a synthetic approach to historical data, bringing together disparate sources in individual collections.” He specializes in document recovery and writing reports “on New York City buildings for a wide variety of purposes, from simple narratives to pinpoint determinations of occupancy, usage, alterations and other specific issues.” But what’s most helpful is the Building Permit search engine he has created. The Building Permits Database searched Manhattan building applications from 1900-1986. On the homepage he provides basic and advanced search tips as well as caveats.

This entry is both an architecture and neighborhood link—Tribeca Citizen has complied a History of Tribeca Buildings database compiled from Tom Miller’s posts at Daytonian in Manhattan

Digital Photo Collections

My favorite collection from The Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Collection is their collection of photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company. Most photos “depict scenes in the United States (chiefly east of the Mississippi), together with some photographs of other nations in the Americas and Europe.” Enter “New York City” in the “search this collection” box and find yourself immersed in a multitude of images from the early 1900s!

OldNYC: Mapping Historical photos from the NYPL uses a process called geocoding to take the addresses associated with the photos to get a latitude/longitude pair to identify a location on the Earth’s surface. A really cool way to explore the the New York Public Library’s Milstein Collection.

There are two sites which use the New York City Municipal Archives’ tax photos to show NYC in 1940s and 1980s—both using a map to do a visual search. 1940s.nyc is the project of Julian Boilen and 80s.nyc is the project of Brandon Liu and Jeremy Lechtzin.

Old NYC Photos is an online shop selling reproductions of vintage photos and maps from the 5 boroughs. The site is run by Brian Merlis who has produced numerous photographic history books of NYC neighborhoods; he has collaborated with Riccardo Gomes of The East New York Project on some of them.

Documerica was a program sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency. Over 70 well-known photographers contracted by the EPA to document subjects of environmental concern in America during the 1970s. The catalog is housed at National Archives and you view the photos of NYC online.

Wallabout Market ran along the eastern edge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard from about 1884 until 1941. It was one of the largest outdoor markets in the world selling meat, produce, and dry goods to retailers. In 1941 as the U.S. began to take a more active role in WW II the market was turned over to turned over to the US Navy and the buildings were demolished over the following months. The National Archives has recently digitization a series of photos of Wallabout Market which you can view online.

The Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection is part of the Indiana University archives. He was an amateur photographer Indiana University alumnus who bequeathed his collection of Kodachrome color slides to his alma mater. Spanning the years of 1938 to 1969 the photos document not just the United States but Europe, Mexico, the Middle East and beyond! You can browse by location and find 156 photos of New York city and state from the early 1940s.

New York University Archives has a great Washington Square Area photo collection. The photos range from the mid 1940s-late 1980s.

Duke University Libraries Digital Collection has two photographers’ collections worth exploring. William Gedney was a photographer who studied and taught at Pratt Institute of Art. Narrow down your search to New York only and you can browse a number of photos and contact sheets. Ron Reis shot primarily in London and New York City between 1957 and 1973. His collection can also be searched by New York as well.

The Dinanda Nooney Brooklyn Photograph Collection is part of The New York Public Library Digital Collection but I feel it deserves a special mention. Photographer Dinanda Nooney networked her way through Brooklyn between January 1978 and April 1979. Her collection “depicts over 150 families or individuals. Each photograph is identified by neighborhood, address, and the names of the sitters. Among those neighborhoods depicted are Bay Ridge, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Heights, Bushwick, Carroll Gardens, Coney Island, Crown Heights, Flatbush, Fort Greene, Gravesend, Greenpoint, and Park Slope.”

Viewing NYC “is a site that features videos and photos of the art, comedy, culture, food, history and events of New York City.” They have a Vintage Photography category with photos, video, postcards from all 5 boroughs—yes even Staten Island 😉

The New York City Parks Photo Archive has 7 online photo albums. Categories range from Pools in Parks to Street Games. The site is a little clunky but since the collection is small it’s worth exploring.

1970’s New York City is a thread on a forum called Wired New York—a site I know nothing about and can’t even remember how I found! Anyway, the thread has a bunch of photos contributed by everyday people. Some are dupes and some may look familiar from flickr links I posted below. The thread hasn’t been updated since 2008 and some of the links are broken but there are still some great unseen photos to uncover. And if you poke around you’ll find some other great posts as well!

Flashbak has some great NYC-centric posts—here are some that are worth checking out:
A selection from the book Disco: The Bill Bernstein Photographs
The Terminal Bar, NYC: Derelicts, Wonderers, The Medicated, Pimps And Punters (1973-1981)
New York City 1978: Naked By Daylight
New York 1982 / 1983: Before Big Money Buried The City’s Character
People Of Tompkins Square Park, New York City, Summer of Love 1967
Max’s Kansas City: Photos Of New York’s Wildest Bar (1965 – 1981)
A Day Trip to Coney Island In The 1960s
Great Snapshots of New York in 1978 by a Soviet Aeroflot Pilot
New York in Motion: Incredible Photographs of The City That Never Sleeps (1880s)
Sammy’s Stork Club of the Bowery New York: ‘An Alcoholic Haven’ of Prospering Poverty (1934 – 1970)
A Colorful Day Out To Coney Island – 1948
New York’s Lower East Side Punk Scene In Photos From the Early 1980s
Gritty 1970s Photos of the NYPD Show the Banality, Brute Force, and Humor of “Life on the Beat” in Downtown Manhattan
A Night at O’Reilly’s Bar in New York in 1942
Superb Photos of the New York City St Patrick’s Day Parade in 1974
CBGB Portraits: A 1970s New York Club At The Centre Of The Rock ‘n’ Roll Universe
A selection from the book Cars – New York City 1974-1976

Digital Photo Collections-flickr

The Library of Congress also has a flickr account! It’s a really great way to view photos in their collection. They have over 50 albums with my favorite being the Bain News Service Photos “News in the 1910s.” The majority of photos are from NYC and they “richly document local sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, political activities including the woman suffrage campaign, conventions and public celebrations.”

A great selection of photos taken 1912 by Edgar Gariépy were taken by a 30 year old photographer from Montreal on a personal trip to the United States. The collection is part of the Archives de la Ville de Montréal which houses documents from 1796 to the present day.

Two great albums New York 1971 and New York City 1971 B/W are by a photographer named Hans Joachim Jacobi. The flickr account is run by someone with the handle “Gentle***Giant.” From I understand the photos were taken by his father “Hans Joachim Jacobi using a Exakta Varex IIa, an East-German camera, on the way to and from Halifax in Nova Scotia to visit relatives.”

Spanish photographer Manel Armengol has a flickr account with an archive of his work. He has 3 great albums of photos taken in NYC from 1977-78—NEW YORK, 1977-78 – Notebook, NEW YORK 1977-78 (color) Notebook, and NEW YORK – LGTB PRIDE PARADE 78

An account I came across with researching a storage warehouse ghost sign is Crown Heights North. There are photos albums with recent photos as well as albums of vintage Brooklyn photos and postcards sorted by architects, architectural styles and more.

Sometimes with flickr you can do a NYC neighborhood search and get some surprises. An account by Mr Flikker cam up and I found this great album of a ghost sign reveal on 14th in 2005 and then realized it was featured on Walter Grutchfield’s 14to42.net site!

A sampling of photos of NYC in 1980 from Ed Sijmons and LouiseLH of Amsterdam are included in the Historical Tribeca: A Scrapbook section of Tribeca Citizen. Here are links to their complete albums—a fantastic blast from the past! NYC 1980 part1 NYC 1980 part2 NYC 1980 part3 NYC 1980 pt4

A fantastic discovery is the archive of photos taken by a man named Nick DeWolf. It is run by his son-in-law and showcases the numerous photos from all over the world that he took in his lifetime from the 1950s til his death in 2006. Check out new york city – march 1958, new york city, set 3 – march 1958, nyc, street life – march 1970, nyc, street life, set 2 – march 1970, greenwich village, nyc – october 1970, new york city – april 197 and new york city, summer 1978.

Thomas Davis has two great vintage albums—Analog New York and N.Y World’s Fair.

PETERSHAGEN was a German tourist visiting NYC in 1979, here are his photos—lots of great shots of graphics and signs!

Christian Montone has a great album of his collection of vintage NYC photos and ephemera. He’s got lots of other fun non-NYC albums worth checking out as well!

Steven Siegel has a number of albums of NYC worth checking out especially New York in the 80s.

Mark Susina has an album of Found Photos – New York City along with a bunch of other “found” photos and ghost signs in Chicago.

Eugene Gannon has an Old New York with photos from the 1980s including SoHo, Meatpacking District, Lower East Side and more!

Dan Larson’s album NYC 1983-86 has an assortment of photos from around the city plus some of his time at SVA—my Alma Mater!

Tom Riggle has a New York City, 1967-1968, 1974, 2017 with photos from Coney Island, South Street Seaport and a Columbia University protest from 1968 plus more.

Here are some great NYC albums on flickr I found through Flashbak:
Andy Blair’s album of of Vintage New York City photos
Tony Redhead’s album of New York City 1979
Terry from Sydney’s album of 1979 NYC

Digital Photo Collections-Facebook

There are a bunch of public facebook groups that feature old NYC with personal photos, newspaper articles and ads, even menus and radio charts! Here are a few:
Old Images of New York 1950-1989
Old Images of New York 1974-2005
The Old New York Page
Al Ponte’s Time Machine – New York
Dirty Old 1970s New York City

Photographers

Walker Evans, born in 1903, spent on and off in NYC in the 1920s where he intended on becoming a writer. He instead took up the camera in 1928 first taking photos that depicted “semiabstract patterns derived from skyscrapers or other machine-age products.” He is best know for his work between 1935-1937 for the Farm Security Administration to “provide a photographic survey of rural America.” Between 1938 and 1941 he produced his series of portraits in the New York city subway with a camera hidden in his coat. These photos were published in a book called Many Are Called. His photos are held by New The Metropolitan Museum of Art and about 1,00 are held by the Library of Congress. A small selection his NYC photos can be found online at the Eastman Museum.

Berenice Abbott was a renown photographer who was best known for her project Changing New York. The photos of New York stores, street vendors and bars in the 1930s was sponsored by Federal Art Project.

Jacob Riis was a pioneering journalist and photographer whose book How the Other Half Lives documented the squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. Search online and you’ll find many links to his work; Flashbak has comprehensive summary.

Percy Loomis Sperr, originally from Ohio, was under contract for the New York Public Library from the early 1920s through the early 1940s. He took approximately 30,000 to 45,000 photographs of a changing New York City. A comprehensive article his work can be found on the outline.com.

Stanley Kubrick needs no introduction but what some people do not know is that between 1945 and 1950 he was staff a staff photographer for LOOK magazine. You can view the digital archive online on The Museum of the City of New York’s website.

Andreas Feininger “was noted for his dynamic black-and-white scenes of Manhattan.” In 1939 he moved from Europe to NYC working as a freelance photojournalist and from 1941 to 1942 as a war correspondent and photographer for the United States Office of War Information. He was a staff photographer for Life magazine from 1943 to 1962. You can view his photos online at MoMA and Artnet.

Edward Grazda was born in Queens and is known for his collection of photos compiled in the book Mean Streets NYC 1970-1985 as well as On the Bowery showing “the weathered life and times he encountered on the Bowery in 1971.”

Ernst Haas, Austrian born photojournalist and color photographer, moved to New York in 1950 after being appointed as Magnum’s U.S. Vice President. He is known for “his groundbreaking 24-page color photo essay on New York City” published by Life in 1953. In 1962 MoMA held a retrospective of his work—their first ever color photography exhibition. You can view some of his classic color, new color and black and white NYC photos on a site devoted to his estate

Bruce Davidson is a New York based photographer who has been shooting for over 50 years. A member of the Magnum international photographic cooperative, he states “If I am looking for a story at all, it is in my relationship to the subject – the story that tells me, rather than that I tell.” You can view selected images from Subway story as well as his Brooklyn Gang story online.

Bruce Gilden, an “iconic street photographer with a unique style,” was born in Brooklyn and started in shooting in the late 1960s. The Magnum photographer is known for his “direct manner of shooting the faces of passers-by with a flash.” A selection of his black and white photos of 1970s and 80s NYC can be found on his site.

Inge Morath, another member of Magnum, was born in Austria and travel the world taking photos. Her photos of NYC spanned four decades from the late 1950s-the late 1990s. Her iconic photo A Llama in Time Square is a favorite.

Joel Meyerowitz is a New York born, award-winning, color photography pioneer. His selected works of NYC, Empire State, can be found on his site. Flashbak also has a great article on his on his photos.

Tod Papageorge began his career in NYC in the 1960s. He started taking street photos at the suggestion of his friends Garry Winogrand and Joel Meyerowitz. His collection of Kodachrome photos of New York City taken between 1966 and 1967 were published in a book called Tod Papageorge: Dr. Blankman´s New York. His collection of black and white photos of Central Park taken over a span of 25 years were published in a book called Passing Through Eden.

Garry Winogrand, born in the Bronx, “defined street photography as an attitude as well as a style.” He was known mostly for his black and white images but in 2019 the Brooklyn Museum exhibited his color photos in a show I was lucky enough to see! You can view his work online through many institutions such as MoMA.

Vivian Maier was an unknown until her archive of 100,000 unseen negatives and undeveloped films were purchased by former estate agent John Maloof at a Chicago thrift auction. In the 1950s the former nanny would photograph the streets of Chicago and NYC in her leisure time amassing “some of the finest street photography of the 20th century.” You can view her photos online on a site devoted to her legacy.

Saul Leiter came to NYC in 1946 to study painting but by 1948 had begun to experiment in color photography. He had a highly prolific period in NYC in the 1950s with his “abstracted forms and radically innovative compositions” that “have a painterly quality that stands out among the work of his New York School contemporaries.” His work can be found on his site as well as a great Flashback article.

Allan Tannenbaum is a photographer and author of of the book New York in the 70s, and has a Tribeca in the 1970s album on his site. Great black and white shots of the neighborhood before it became the playground of the rich. Many other great albums of NYC nightlife, music and more. Please note: “All images are copyrighted and may not be copied or used without express written consent of Allan Tannenbaum.”

Todd Webb picked up a camera in the 1930s after already been a successful stockbroker (and losing it all in The Crash), prospecting for gold and working as a forest ranger! You can find a selection of his photos of NEW YORK: 1946-1959 on his online archive.

Robert Herman is a street photographer who began shooting in the late 70’s while a film student at NYU. His Kodachromes of 1980s New York City were published as a book called The New Yorkers. A selection can be viewed on his site as well as on Flashbak.

Ryan Weideman came to NYC in 1980 to become a street photographer. He turned to driving a taxi to pay his rent and “turned his eye on the passengers riding in his cab.” His black and white photos captured “interesting looking people that were exciting and inspired, creating their own unique atmosphere.” He also managed to shoot Allen Ginsberg, a young Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys, 1980s it-girl Dianne Brill and more! You can view some of his photos here as well as on Flashbak.

Rebecca Lepkoff “made photographs of New York City since the late 1930’s.” She was a Photo League member and was known for documenting the street life of the Lower East Side. Her book “Life on the Lower East Side: Photographs by Rebecca Lepkoff, 1937-1950″ is a collection of her best photos of that era. She is represented by the Howard Greenberg Gallery.

Leland Bobbé is a native New Yorker who’s been a professional photographer for over 35 years. His a selection of his photos of a gritty NYC mid 1970s can be found on his site and 18 of these are in the permanent collection at the Museum of the City of New York.

Frank Horvat was an Italian photographer based in Paris. His career spanned from the 1950s til his death in October of 2020. His time in NYC in the 1980s produced the project New York Up & Down.

Meredith Jacobson Marciano moved to NYC in 1986 and focused her camera on “Art Deco and mid-century buildings, picture palaces, ghost signs, ephemera and pop culture past and present.” Her collection of photos of New York in the 1970s through 9-11 is housed online by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. You can also view her work on flickr.

Camilo José Vergara “uses photography to “track time” and makes us look closely at how the urban decay of America’s inner cities changes in small and large ways.” His photos of Old New York City as well as the rest of his archive have a permanent home at the Library of Congress.

Robert Iulo, “pro-photographer for a couple of years in the 1970s and a sometimes-photographer since then,” has some great galleries from the 1970s on his 500px account. Check out Lower East Side 1970s, Greenwich Village 1970s, Chinatown, New York, 1970s and more!

Meryl Meisler is an NYC based photographer whose body of work includes The Lower East Site in the 1970s & ’80s as well as late 1970s and early 80s New York Discos and Bushwick, Brooklyn which she juxtaposes in her book A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick

Willy Spiller, a Swiss photographer, published his photos of the NYC subway in 1977-1984 in a book called Hell on Wheels.

Jonathan Brand’s photographs of New York City’s Lower East Side and Upper West Side in the 1950s and 1960s are presented in the book Lower East and Upper West: New York City Photographs 1957-1968

James Jowers left the US Army in the 1960s and studied photography at the New School for Social Research. At night he worked as a porter at New York’s St. Luke’s Hospital; in the daytime he would wander NYC taking photos, His work can be found online as part of the Eastman Museum online collections including his Manhattan and Brooklyn photos.

Danny Lyon is a Brooklyn-born photographer working in the ” the style of photographic New Journalism, meaning that the photographer has become immersed in with, and is a participant of, the documented subjects.” A collection of his photos of Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Green and Park Slope among other Brooklyn neighborhoods in the summer of 1974 can be found in this Business Insider article—of all places! An earlier NYC-centric project from the 1960s documents the destruction of 60 acres south of Canal Street to make way for the World Trade Center. The photo series was published in 1969 in a book titled The Destruction of Lower Manhattan. A selection can also be viewed in this article in The New Yorker.

Frank Oscar Larson was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in 1896. He worked as an auditor and throughout the 1950s had a weekend hobby of traveling from his home in Queens into Manhattan taking photos with his Rolleiflex camera. “He would leave home early in the morning on photographic expeditions to exotic places like the Bowery, Chinatown or Times Square, or to less exotic places like Central Park, the Cloisters or nearby Kissena Park.” Six of his New York City – the 1950’s galleries can be viewed online.

Ruth Orkin “grew up in Hollywood in the heyday of the 1920s and 1930s.” In 1943 she moved to New York in 1943 where she worked as a nightclub photographer eventually working all the major magazines in 1940s. A selection of her NYC photos can be found on her photo archive.

George Mann was a vaudeville performer who “about 12,000 B&W photographs, many of them demonstrating an extraordinary skill and aesthetic sensibility.” HIs photos of NYC can be found on a site devoted to his archive.

Helen Levitt was a Native New Yorker who was called “the most celebrated and least known photographer of her time.” She took black and white as well color photographs of city life from the 1930s through the 1980s. There are many books published of her work—check out In the Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages, New York City. You can view her work online; Flashbak has a great article of her 1980s color photos.

N. Jay Jaffee was born in Brooklyn in 1921. “In 1947, fresh out of the army Jaffee picked up his camera” and started photographing the Brooklyn neighborhoods in which he grew up along with Manhattan, Queens and Long Island. His galleries Brooklyn: An Era Past, Brooklyn: Additional Photographs, In Focus: NYC along with other galleries can be viewed online.

Alen MacWeeney was born in Dublin and came to NYC in the 1970s after working as an assistant to Richard Avedon. He took hundreds of photos of the subway system and their riders creating composites finding “that the combined images told more than a single picture alone.” His diptychs are part of the New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Paul McDonough came to NYC in 1967 after graduating from the New England School of Art. His photos of the city in 1970s capture the quirkiness and unique moments of the city streets. His two collections can be viewed online—NEW YORK CITY, 1968 -1972 and NEW YORK CITY, 1973-1978. A comprehensive article on his work can be found on SLATE.

Gregoire Alessandrini was a film student in NYC in the 1990s. He amassed a collection of over “1000 images of long gone NYC landmarks, transformed locations and NY street scenes all taken between 1991 and 1998.”

James and Karla Murray are architectural and interior photographers who are known for their their photos of disappearing NYC storefronts. You can view them in their books Store Front – The Disappearing Face of New York and Store Front II – A History Preserved as well as a selection on their website.

Irwin Klein died prematurely in 1974 and the majority of his photos were either lost or stolen but a small number remained, all taken in the last weeks of his life. The Domeischel Gallery exhibited these photos and you can view the photos online.

Richard Friedman runs a blog called All I’ve Seen where you find his photos of NYC in the late 1960s/early 1970s.

Matt Weber has been an NYC street photographer since the early 1980s. YOu can view a number of his galleries online such as New York City Street Photography (20th Century), Coney Island, New York Subway, and more.

Wayne Sorce was born in Chicago in 1946. He specialized in color photography of New York City and Chicago in the 1970s and 80s. Flashbak has nice selection of his work. I especially like his photos of run-down Vinegar Hill before it became the shiny playground we know as DUMBO today.

Retro Blogs

Flashbak’s tagline is “Everything Old is New Again.” They “delve into public and private archives to find creative treasures and forgotten gems – pictures, sounds, videos and objects.” There are over 400 pages, mostly from Europe, to explore. Do a search for New York City to narrow down your search.

The Retrologist, run by Rolando Pujol, is “devoted to preserving the best of roadside Americana of the 20th century.” Follow his instagram for the best experience!

Once Upon a Town-Before Strip Malls and Urban Sprawl documents the “19th and 20th Centuries in Photography.” There is an archive which goes back 2013 with thumbnails and a drop-down “tag” menu. New York City has over 1,200 posts.

The Department Store Museum is an “on-line museum of North America’s independent department stores. The museum holds all sorts of information about classic department stores which either no longer exist, or are changed beyond recognition.” The blog is run by Bruce Allen Kopytek who is also the author of Crowley’s: Detroit’s Friendly Store, Eaton’s, the Trans-Canada Store, Toledo’s Three Ls: Lamson’s, The Lion Store, and Lasalle’s, and Jacobson’s: I miss it so! The New York City section is missing some important stores like Russeks and Barneys but the site is “a work in progress and a labor of love.”

Landmarks Designation Reports

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) “is the largest municipal preservation agency in the nation. It is responsible for protecting New York City’s architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites by granting them landmark or historic district status, and regulating them after designation.” The site has a Designation Reports section you can search by keyword, landmark or historic district name, address, borough, or landmark type. There’s also a map where you can search by Historic Districts, Individual Landmarks, Scenic Landmarks plus other types. Below is a list of some reports that I have found useful:

SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District Designated in 1973 it encompasses Houston Street on the north side, Crosby Street and the east side, Canal Street on the south side andWest Broadway on the west side.

South Street Seaport Historic District Designated in 1977 it encompasses Dover Street on the north side, South Street including Piers 17-15 on the east side, between Fletcher and John Street on the south side, up Front Street on the west side, a quick turn north on Fulton Street, then up Pearl Street, east on Peck Slip, north on Water Street to meet Dover Street.

Tribeca East Historic District Designated in 1992 it encompasses Canal Street on the north side, Cortlandt Alley on the east side, zig zags up Broadway to Franklin Place up to Worth Street on the south side, goes back north up Church Street back to Franklin Street up to West Broadway on the west side, zig zags between White and Walker Streets back down south 6th Avenue and then back around to continue north on Church Street.

DUMBO Historic District Designated in 2007 it encompasses Plymouth up Adams Street to John Street on the north side down Bridge Street on the east side across Jay Street zig zagging down to York Street back up to Jay Street then back down to York Street again on the north side, up Main Street to Howard Alley, back to east to Water Street and finally north on Main Street to meet Plymouth Street.

South Village Historic District Designated in 2013 it encompasses West 4th Street/Washington Square South on the north side, down Sullivan Street acros to West 3rd Street, down LaGuardia Place on the east side, West Houston Street zig zagging between Bleecker Street on the north side, then zig zagging back up 6th Avenue to meet West 4th Street.

Transportation

I mentioned The New York Transit Museum under the museums heading but the following are some more resources to be of help:

Wikipedia has an entry of a list of all the streetcar lines in Brooklyn organized by East-West lines and North-South lines and how the route is serviced now if at all.

Curbed has a very thorough article written by James Nevius on the history of NYC’s elevated trains. He is the author, along with his wife Michelle, of Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers and Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City. They also have a blog Inside the Apple-A Streetwise History of New York City with is worth checking out although it hasn’t been updated since September 2019.

NYCsubways.org has been run since 1995 and is the go-to site for “history of the New York City Subway system, including photos, maps, and documents.”

6sqft has a great article on how NYC’s first elevated train and the world’s first streetcar began in Greenwich Village

NYC historian Tess Stahl, who runs the Discovering NYC Instagram account, had a great Ask Me Anything on Reddit about 4 years ago specifically about NYC railroads. The thread is locked but the comment thread is still up where you can see all the great questions she answered.

YouTube has a bunch of videos of bygone transportation modes in NYC. Here are a few I found:
The unforgotten Streetcars of Brooklyn, NY
The Ninth Avenue Elevated: New York, 1929
If Things Could Talk-“The Vanishing El” 3rd Avenue Elevated
3RD AVENUE ELEVATED , a full trip movie footage (in color)

Signs & Typography

Vernacular Typography is a blog run by Molly Woodward which “seeks to collect and document examples” of the vanishing art of regional vernacular signage.

Atlas Obscura has fantastic article on Walldogs and the Disappearing Art of Painting Signs on Buildings. The article explains, “The workers were called walldogs for two reasons: first because they worked like dogs (you try painting a 30-foot brick wall in the blazing heat or wind and cold); plus, sliding up and down the side of a building meant they needed to be tethered–leashed, so to speak–to the wall. “

Walter Grutchfield has a great article on the Mack Sign Co., an NYC-based sign company, which includes the history of the company as well as a description for painting a wall sign.

The New York Times has two articles to check out—Tracking ‘Privilege Signs’ as They Vanish from 2013 and Fading Ads, Pickled in Pixels from 2010.

New York Neon “presents a documentary homage to old neon signs in New York.” The blog, run by Thomas E. Rinaldi, is a companion to the book New York Neon.

Miscellaneous/Niche

AbandonedNYC is run by Will Ellis who goes beyond “ruin porn” by providing “history and commentary” to “enrich the experience.” He also has a companion book, Abandoned NYC.

Scouting New York is run by movie location scout Nick Carr. The site hasn’t been updated since 2015 but there are many great categories to explore like “Hidden Surprises,” “Abandoned,” and more!

Infamous New York is a “Gangland Tour of New York City’s Most Infamous Crime Scenes” The blog “uncovers the history of the strutting mobsters, brawling Bowery Boys, dapper racketeers, and vicious Mafiosi that gave Gotham its grit.” It hasn’t been updated since July, 2019 but it’s worth exploring if this is your thing!

Brownstoner has a great article from 2010 about Brooklyn storage warehouses; mentions Eagle Warehouse, Peter F. Reilly, and others.

If you are interested in your building’s history, the people who inhabited it and the neighborhood in general the check out the Who Lived in a House Like This? Building Research at The New York Public Library article detailing how to go about answering those questions. It details the different sources you can access at the NYPL online and in-person.

Historic Map Works is a “historic digital map database of North America and the world.” They boast that their “map collection numbers over 1,662,928 individual images.” You can search by a variety of keyword such as location, address or place, publisher and more. NYC finds include a Brooklyn 1920s transportation map, a Central Park Development Composition, a 1906 Coney Island Bird’s Eye View and so much more!

After The Final Curtain “is a photographic documentation of the effects of years of neglect and decay in some of America’s greatest theaters.” It’s run by NYC-based photographer Matt Lambros. He is also the author of Kings Theatre: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Brooklyn’s Wonder Theatre.

If archaeology if your thing (I know it’s mine) then you’ll have fun going through NYC Landmarks Preservation Committee’s Archaeological Reports. Warning: there are tons of them!

OldStreets.com is a guide to former street names and long gone streets in NYC. Compiled by Gilbert Tauber, it includes “old roads, lanes, alleys, courts, terraces, parks, squares, wharves, piers, slips, markets and other named urban features that have been demapped, obliterated or renamed.”

Vintage Photos & Film Licensing Services

Shorpy “is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s.” The specialize in adjusting and restoring glass and film negatives/transparencies of their holdings as well as from the Library of Congress. You can source digital images for purchase or permission to use. They also sell a selection of their collections as fine-art prints.

Granger Historical Picture Archive “provides historical images for commercial and editorial use.” They also have a educational archive free of charge to teachers, librarians and students.

Huntley Film Archives provides ” historical and vintage archive footage that is quirky, unique and rare.” A search for “New York” has 35 results ranging from 1890-1970.

Getty Images, the premier creative and editorial photo and video licensing site, has an archival service. A search for “New York City” has over 564,508 Images! The cost of a sample image for digital media usage for 3 years came out to $215.

Reddit Groups

If reddit is your thing here are two groups I like:
NYCHistory: The History of New York City
Secondhand explore the shitty NYC of decades ago!