New York City Municipal Archives Digital Galleries
The Department of Records & Information Services preserves and provides public access to historical and contemporary records and information about New York City government. The Municipal Library & 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
Get Involved: Transcription at the Municipal Archives
The Municipal Archives currently has nine volumes of digitized records from towns in Brooklyn, Queens, and Westchester counties, dating from 1660 to 1838, containing documents of children born to enslaved women and manumission records. The volumes range from 200 to 500 pages, including both original documents and hand-written original transcriptions of records. Using From the Page — a platform designed for transcription — volunteers will enter information from each volume into a form that DORIS will then add to a searchable database. The transcribed data will be easily searchable and will help researchers and the general public locate and view records of thousands of formerly enslaved New Yorkers who lived in New York City that would otherwise be difficult to trace. Click here for more information.
On April 8th, 2019 the New York City Department of Records and Information Services welcomed Femke Halsema, the Mayor of the City of Amsterdam, to celebrate the shared cultural heritage of two great cities—Amsterdam and New York City. To commemorate the occasion, selected historical documents from the New York City Municipal Archives, its counterpart, the Stadsarchief Amsterdam, and the New York State Archives are on display at 31 Chambers Street, Manhattan. These documents detail the government’s response to residents who petitioned in 1657 to be granted the rights of citizenship, and in turn, the responsibilities that come with those rights. Learn more about the first citizens of New Amsterdam in our new gallery.
31 Chambers Street, ca. 1940. Department of Finance Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
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.