Exhibits

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Exhibits

Our agency hosts exhibits onsite and online which tell the history of the city through the collections of the Municipal Library and Archives.

Check out our events page for upcoming exhibit openings and public programs.

You can also visit Archives.NYC to read our latest blog post and learn about our virtual exhibits.

Onsite Exhibits

New Visions of Old New York

31 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007

9:30am-4:30pm

On view from January 23 throughout 2025, New Visions of Old New York is a collaborative exhibit by the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) and the New Amsterdam History Center. Featuring an interactive 3-D map from the New Amsterdam History Center’s Mapping Early New York project alongside 17th-century records from the New York City Municipal Archives and Library, this dynamic exhibit examines the lives of women, enslaved people, and Native Americans and how they shaped the culture of the Dutch West India Company settlement that eventually became New York City.

Revisiting the World of Tomorrow: The 1964-65 World's Fair

31 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007

9:30am-4:30pm

Explore the first-floor alcove at 31 Chambers Street to discover a captivating display on the 1964-1965 World’s Fair, featuring images from the Municipal Library and Municipal Archives’ collections. The exhibit showcases three key areas of the Fair—transportation, religion, and commerce—through original brochures and ephemera, offering visitors a nostalgic journey back to childhood memories.

Virtual Exhibits

Uniting the Boroughs: The Triborough Bridge

Uniting the Boroughs: The Triborough Bridge explores the history of the Triborough Bridge and its role in uniting Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens in a rapidly modernizing city. Uniting the Boroughs focuses on the story of the evolving design and construction of the Triborough Bridge and the work of civil engineer Othmar Ammann to redesign the structure, overcoming multiple engineering difficulties to open in July of 1936, twenty years after its original conception. The exhibit uses original documents, photos, and footage from the Municipal Archives and the MTA Bridges and Tunnels' Special Archive and includes a large model of the Triborough Bridge and surrounding areas commissioned in 1935. Uniting the Boroughs documents how the bridge contributed to the development of the city, including the history of Randalls and Wards Islands as parks.

View Uniting the Boroughs Gallery

Ebb & Flow: Tapping into the History of New York City's Water

In collaboration with the Museum of American Finance, we launched a new exhibit, titled Ebb & Flow: Tapping into the History of New York City's Water. Ebb & Flow explores the more than 200-year history of the city's efforts to build one of the world's finest water supply systems. The exhibit includes the fascinating story of how a private water company, founded by Aaron Burr in 1799, evolved into the largest bank in the United States today.

View Virtual Ebb & Flow Gallery

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives - A Pictorial History of Working People in New York City

The extraordinary efforts of ordinary people are visible during this pandemic as never before. Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives tells the stories of the men and women who built the City—of towering structures and the beam walkers who assembled them; of immigrant youths in factories and women in sweatshops; of longshoremen and typewriter girls; of dock workers and captains of industry. It provides a glimpse in to the traditions they carried with them to this country and how they helped create new ones, in the form of labor organizations that provided recent immigrants, often overwhelmed by the intensity of New York life, with a sense of solidarity and security.

View Virtual Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives Gallery

Public Record – Julia Weist

Julia Weist worked with the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) as part of the Public Artists in Residence (PAIR), a municipal residency program that embeds artists in New York City government. During her residency at DORIS, Julia Weist researched the municipal government's relationship to art and artists as documented in the City's Archives, looking particularly at records featuring criteria for evaluating art, surveillance of individual artists, and notes on artists' role in civic life. Weist used these findings as the foundation for a series of eleven photographic prints that comprise Public Record and then leveraged the City's records retention procedures by transferring artwork created onsite to Pauline Toole, Commissioner of DORIS. As a result, the artwork became subject to the NYC Agency Head General Subject Files Retention and Disposition Series which required they be kept, processed, and made public according to regulations.

View Virtual Julia Weist Gallery

Healthcare Workers in History

From the days of horse-drawn ambulance carriages and handwritten medical records, through the introduction of modern vaccines and medical technologies, the collections of the Municipal Archives document the history of healthcare in the City. Our collections from the Department of Public Charities and Hospitals, Department of Health, Department of Public Charities and Correction's Almshouse Ledger Collection, and others document the activities and methods of New York City's doctors, nurses, and healthcare heroes as they confronted the many challenges a vibrant city presents. By continuously adopting the latest tools and methods, the City's medical staff has worked tirelessly to keep the public health.

View Virtual Healthcare Workers in History Gallery

Department of Buildings - Architectural Plans and Drawings

The history of building regulation in New York City dates almost as far back as the city itself. In 1625, the Dutch West India Company imposed rules regarding the types of structures that could be built and where they could be located.  In succeeding years, additional regulations were enacted that addressed fire hazards, as well as sanitary and public safety needs, but enforcement was inconsistent. The Municipal Archives staff have recently worked to improve the conditions of the plans through conservation treatments and preservation housing. The selections in the gallery here present a unique view of the varied types of plans in this collection.

View Virtual Architectural Plans and Drawings Gallery