Mid-Manhattan Library’s Renowned Picture Collection Goes Online with Thousands of Digital Images

Treasured Resource for Designers, Researchers, Artists, and Educators Is Now Available at picturecollection.nypl.org.

30,000 Images to Be Online by End of 2003

 

 

Navajo boy, New Mexico. Postcard, by Fred Harvey. The New York Public Library, The Branch Libraries, Picture Collection.
New York, NY, January 13, 2003 -- For nearly 90 years, New York’s artistic and educational community has found a valuable and dependable source of inspiration in a unique resource at The New York Public Library: the Picture Collection. Housed on the third floor of the Mid-Manhattan Library since 1982, the more than one million images there are at the disposal of some 140,000 visitors each year, fueling the creativity of commercial artists and illustrators, fashion designers, scenic designers and art directors for theater and film, as well as teachers and students at schools of fine and applied arts. Now, through a major initiative to digitize 30,000 images by the end of 2003 in some of the most popular subject areas, people can tap into this resource from any computer via the Internet, by simply logging onto picturecollection.nypl.org.

Organized into more than two dozen subjects -- including, for example, African Americans, American History, Costumes, Fashion Drawings, New York City, Dragons, and Animals -- the digitized images date from the 1700s through the first quarter of the 20th century, and are drawn from the Picture Collection’s vast reference holdings of images clipped from books, newspapers, and magazines. The online database also includes digitized copies of original photographs, prints, and postcards from the collection.

“The purpose of the Picture Collection Online is to make these valuable visual resources more widely and readily available, so that our many users can browse the collection from the comfort of their home, school, office, or studio,” said Mary K. Conwell, Director of The Branch Libraries. “These easily accessible digital images -- which document local history, costumes of various dates and places, and a variety of other topics -- should prove to be an important creative tool for anyone seeking visual ideas.”

Three [New York City] park employees catching a big snake, 1906. The New York Public Library, The Branch Libraries. Picture Collection.

While the visitors to the Mid-Manhattan Library’s physical Picture Collection are typically professionals and students from New York City and the tri-state area working in the creative arts, the Picture Collection Online can be accessed and used by anyone and at any time. Teachers and students, including those in elementary and secondary school, will find a ready resource for use in the classroom: the images, which are not readily available anywhere else, record the history and culture of people and places around the world, and they also demonstrate how the artists and photographers who created them saw the world in which they lived.

Visitors to the website will find easy-to-use browse and search functions that allow perusal through various “folders” or subject areas. Results are displayed as thumbnails, with links to a larger, printable version of each image and to the corresponding citation information. A feature called “My Gallery” allows people to collect and view images, as well as place an order for a hard copy print or a digital image, which is provided on a CD.

Butterfy illustration. The New York Public Library, The Branch Libraries. Picture Collection.

The Picture Collection Online -- Looking Ahead
With the first batch of 30,000 digital images soon to be completed, the Library is looking to build on the work that has been done so far. “It’s wonderful to be able to make thousands of our images available on a broad scale like this,” said David Callahan, Head of the Mid-Manhattan Library’s Picture Collection. “Still, this represents only about 15 percent of the Reference Collection here, and there are many more pictures waiting to be digitized as funding becomes available.”

The Mid-Manhattan Library Picture Collection
The Picture Collection began in 1914 as a modest archive of pictorial materials, and it was originally housed within the Library’s landmark building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. During her 39-year tenure, the collection’s visionary curator, Romana Javitz, built it into a world-renowned resource. Today, the Picture Collection covers more than 12,000 subjects and is the largest of its kind in any public library system. Consisting of an extensive circulating collection (800,000 images) and reference archive (200,000 images), it has provided inspiration and visual information for a broad range of endeavors, in fields as diverse as commercial art and advertising, fashion design, and the film, theater, and popular entertainment industry. The collection continues to grow: last year, 67,000 new images were added. The Picture Collection is located on the third floor of the Mid-Manhattan Library, 455 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

Funding
The New York Public Library, Mid-Manhattan Library, Picture Collection Online is made possible by a federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant, and a private donation.

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Contact: Tina Hoerenz, 212.704.8600

 

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