i post this to make you aware of a very special event: the web opening of the new york city municipal archives, a collection of 870'000 photographies taken in and around NYC since 1858. it is one of the largest municipal archives of the whole world, containing event records, crime investigation files, architectural development views, press photos and an enormous stream of "normal life" ever happening in the city that never sleeps.

the collection is categorized and can be filtered by several collections, time criteria, is searchable for names or events and each picture can be zoomed in or out. you can build your own work spaces and collect pictures for further research. a large quantity of pictures have annotations and the database gives detailed information about where, when, how and by whom they have been taken.

my own contributions here are from a visit in august 2001, just 2 weeks before the WTC came down.

i wish i had such a data base for my own collection of pictures... ;-)

I have been noticing flipping through your entries lately that you seem to have some nostalgia for the US going on? My daughter (lives in Chicago) is quite taken with fire escapes on urban buildings as in your 7th shot here. I suppose if the options were to die from smoke inhalation or climb down one of those, that I would somehow find the courage to go down... but I just might die of smoke inhalation trying to decide. 8^) DancingDolphin · 2012-05-24: 08:48

Great great set. Thanks for the web site. Karukera · 2012-05-24: 10:17

that's very interesting, I like the reflections at #4 Nychthemeron · 2012-05-27: 10:11

Wow, large buildings, # 4, # 6 are magnificent :))) ????? · 2012-05-27: 23:15

NYC always awesome. wonderful post and info you are sharing here. interesting you were there so close to the WTC tragedy. i was supposed to fly to NYC within a week of the 11th. rmjannette · 2012-06-07: 02:15

Nice pictures. Mirrored mountains is my favourite :-) ????? · 2012-06-21: 16:08

Tagged: new york city history municipal archives