archives.nypl.org -- New York Public Library Visual Materials (original) (raw)

NYPL Archives Record Group 10 consists of visual materials that document New York Public Library buildings, programs, staff and predecessor institutions from 1875 to the present. Formats include photoprints, negatives, transparencies, albums, drawings, prints and postcards. Major subjects include the Astor Library, the N.Y.P.L. Branch Libraries, celebrations, construction of the landmark Central Building on Fifth Avenue, the Croton Reservoir, exhibits, the free criculating libraries of New York City, individuals associated with the Library, the Lenox Library, the N.Y.P.L. Research Libraries, staff organizations, parades in front of the Central Building, and activities during World War I and World War II. There are also photographs of children's activities in the branch libraries taken by Lewis Hine for the Child Welfare Exhibit of 1911. The photographs were taken in three boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island.

The New York Public Library Visual Materials are arranged in four series:

• The bulk of Record Group 10 comprises photoprints and negatives of NYPL buildings, programs and staff. Highlights of this series include early images of branches of the New York Free Circulating Library and hundreds of pictures of the construction of The New York Public Library's landmark Central Building.
• This series is arranged in two subseries: A. 35mm Film; B. Lantern Slides. Both subseries contain images of NYPL buildings, programs and staff. Images in Subseries A are primarily from the 1950s-1990s; a small number of them are duplicates of images from earlier years that were made from original prints contained in Series I. Subseries B includes several hundred images dating from the late 1800s through the early 1920s. Among these are many original photographs made by Lewis Hine. Original lantern slides are not open to research, and are not described in this Container List. However, digital duplicates of all lantern slides have been made and will soon be available through The New York Public Library Digital Library Collection. In addition, copy photoprints of many of the Hine images are available in Series I, Boxes 75-76.
• Series includes drawings, cartoons, press clippings and postcards depicting New York Public Library buildings, staff and programs.
• Albums in this series contain mounted photoprints of New York Public Library buildings, programs and staff. Many images are captioned. A highlight of the series is Volume 9, which contains photographs of children's activities in various Branch Libraries taken by Lewis Hine for the Child Welfare Exhibit of 1911.