• Home
  • Events
  • Exhibitions
  • Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures
  • New York City

Items in New York City

  • Detail of small bronze model of a larger sculpture called Lift Every Voice and Sing (Harp), which features a line of people of various heights standing close together so they resemble a harp.

    New York City Introduction

  • Historic black-and-white photo of a chaotic room inside of a New York City tenement with debris littered all over the floor, a wood-burning stove, an overturned chair, and a dusty jacket hung on a door; small naked child squats in a doorway in one of the few spaces where the floor is visible.

    Photograph by the New York City Tenement House Department

  • A vintage printed map of Lower Manhattan with some grid lines highlighted in various colors

    1817 map showing the growth of New York City

  • Historic page from an 1890 manuscript of How the Other Half Lives handwritten in cursive by Jacob Riis with various editing marks in the margins.

    Page from Jacob Riis’s manuscript draft of How the Other Half Lives

  • Photo of a historic scrapbook featuring records from Tammany Hall; the yellowing, stained page features text that reads: Annual Celebration at Tammany Hall.

    Tammany Scrapbooks

  • Photo of a stereoscope, which features a wooden handle and a viewing window for users to look through in order to see a card with two nearly identical images of Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.

    “Perfecscope” stereoscope with stereograph of Central Park

  • Black-and-white lantern slide of the Croton Reservoir with hedges on around the sides of the reservoir and a view of Fifth Avenue filled with carriages and pedestrians.

    Lantern slide of Croton Reservoir, in process of demolition

  • Photo of a small black-and-white newspaper clipping next to a set of large bronze keys.

    Croton reservoir keys and newspaper clipping with image of gatekeeper

  • A vintage printed map of Brooklyn in monochromatic shades of grey. The edges of the map are heavily degraded

    1903 map of The Brooklyn of the Future

  • A black-and-white photograph of a man standing in a tunnel that is under construction

    Photograph of New York City subway construction

  • Pocket-sized leaflet printed on both sides in black ink on white card, and can be opened out into a long rectangle or folded into thirds

    "The Pocket Lawyer" pamphlet published by the Mattachine Society

  • A color magazine depicting an illustration of a muscular man wearing a black-and-white striped speedo standing against a colorful whimsical background

    Spring 1970 issue of Queen’s Quarterly

  • A magazine cover featuring an illustration of a person from the shoulders up, with short red hair and bright red lips and wearing a suit and tie. The New York City skyline is seen in the cover’s title banner along the top of the page, with an eye within a pyramid standing in for the word “eye” as part of the magazine’s title

    May 1979 issue of East Village Eye

  • A black-and-white photograph of above-ground subway tracks, shot from below

    Berenice Abbott’s photograph of El Second and Third Avenue Lines, Hanover Square and Pearl Street

  • Long piece of off-white paper showing designs for Grand Central Terminal in black ink.

    Grand Central Terminal in Perspective

  • A colored aerial map of a large park and its surrounding landscape

    Map of the New York World’s Fair and Approaches

  • Small bronze model of a larger sculpture called Lift Every Voice and Sing (Harp), which features a line of people of various heights standing close together so they resemble a harp.

    Maquette of Augusta Savage’s Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp)

  • Sepia-toned photograph of Augusta Savage's sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing (Harp), which features a line of people of various heights standing close together so they resemble a harp.

    Photograph of Augusta Savage’s Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp)

  • image not available

    Andy Warhol painting inscribed to Truman Capote

  • Black typewriter with green keys and “Royal” logo.

    S.J. Perelman’s typewriter

  • image not available

    Letter from S.J. Perelman to Laura West Perelman

  • Colored pencil illustration of a vibrant theater set featuring bright lights, signs, and storefronts.

    Jo Mielziner set design for Broadway production of Guys and Dolls

  • A sheet of lined paper with three rough sketches of set designs arranged vertically on the page. Each of the sketches, which are primarily blue in color, depict people in or around a house surrounded by trees and other buildings

    Preliminary studies for Death of a Salesman

  • Photo of a yellowing spiral-bound notebook with handwritten cues in pencil and blue ink detailing when various characters or instrumental numbers should appear in a production of West Side Story.

    Cue book for the Broadway production of West Side Story

  • Black-and-white photograph of a group of people on set of a film shoot. The people are on a street in front of a row of apartment buildings

    Production photograph of West Side Story

  • A sheet of paper with five costume design illustrations with handwritten notes. The costumes depicted are various combinations of pants, shirts, vests, and button-downs in mostly blue and yellow hues, and are worn by masculine-presenting characters in different dynamic gestural poses

    Costume designs for West Side Story

  • Historic page from a 1985 manuscript of The Bonfire of the Vanities handwritten in cursive by Tom Wolfe with various editing marks and illustrations in the margins.

    Page from Tom Wolfe’s manuscript draft of The Bonfire of the Vanities

  • image not available

    Jacob Lawrence’s Subway

  • Vertical architectural drawing titled “Brooklyn Tower” showing the construction of one of the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge and annotated in red and black ink

    Architectural plans and drawings of the Brooklyn Bridge

  • A scroll map, mostly rolled up with a small portion—the section showing the island of Manhattan—visible

    James T. Lloyd’s Topographical Map of the Hudson River

  • Illustration of a colorful quilt featuring illustrations of famous Black writers with several squares of text in the middle.

    Tapestry maquette by Faith Ringgold

  • Photo of an off-white piece of paper currency with a wavy top edge and text that indicates the paper is worth five shillings along with several signatures in the bottom right corner.

    Earliest-issued New York City money

    Not currently on view

  • Off-white piece of paper detailing a prospectus for The New Yorker magazine in black text surrounded by a cornflower blue border with ornate patterns.

    Prospectus for The New Yorker

    Not currently on view

  • Historic watercolor sketch on yellowing paper that depicts a woman with dark, curly hair wearing a flat brown and blue hat with a white spire and ball on the crown of the cap; she is shown from several different angles.

    World’s Fair hat design

    Not currently on view

  • Sketch of a smiling man wearing a blue uniform, with arrows and handwritten notes detailing the colors of each component

    Uniform design for the 1939–40 World’s Fair

    Not currently on view

  • Colored pencil illustration on off-white paper detailing a design for the World's Fair bus station entrance featuring grand columns and stairs.

    World’s Fair bus station entrance design

    Not currently on view

  • Historic letter handwritten in cursive and in French with black ink on off-white paper.

    Letter from Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, creator of The Statue of Liberty

    Not currently on view

  • Wedding invitation on off-white paper with ornate text in black ink that reads: Mrs. George Frederic Jones requests the honour of your presences at the marriage of her daughter to Mr. Edward R. Wharton at Trinity Chapel on Wednesday, April 26 at 12 o'clock.

    Invitation to the wedding ceremony of Edith Jones and Edward R. Wharton

    Not currently on view

  • Light blue paper with red-ruled margins covered in black ink script. A blue ribbon tied in a bow is inserted near the top to attach multiple pages

    Articles of Association of the New-York Daily Times and the Weekly Times

    Not currently on view

  • Light blue paper with printed text in two columns under the heading “‘New-York Daily Times.’ A New Morning and Evening Daily Newspaper.”

    Prospectus of the New-York Daily Times

    Not currently on view

  • Etching by Edward Hopper on off-white paper with black ink depicting a moody evening scene in Central Park with a man reading a newspaper on a bench beneath a gaslight.

    Edward Hopper’s Night in the Park

    Not currently on view

  • Gray box reading Image not Available

    Edward Hopper’s Night Shadows

    Not currently on view

  • Three loosely executed set designs arranged one above the other on off-white paper.

    Jo Mielziner’s studies for Death of a Salesman

    Not currently on view

  • A scale model of a theatrical set, representing a block of Washington Heights, Manhattan

    Set model for Off Broadway production of In the Heights

    Not currently on view

  • Historic map featuring a detailed illustration of streets and buildings in lower Manhattan in the 1600s when it was still called New Amsterdam.

    “Redraft of the Castello Plan, New Amsterdam in 1660”

    Not currently on view

  • Sepia-toned photograph of a manuscript map with detailed renderings of the plots and buildings of 17th-century New York City

    Photograph of the Castello Plan

    Not currently on view

  • Poster on yellowing paper that shows a circle that is half green and half blue encompassed by a green and blue arrow above text that reads: Earth Day - April 22, Union Square, Fifth Avenue.

    Poster from the first Earth Day

    Not currently on view

  • Historic map from the 1800s on a long sheet of yellowing paper that depicts an expansion proposal to put Manhattan streets on the grid system.

    Commissioners’ Map and Survey of Manhattan Island

    Not currently on view

  • Ink and pencil sketch on white paper thta depicts a series of grassy hills beneath a cloudy sky.

    Bleecker and MacDougal Feb. 1523 by Saul Steinberg

    Not currently on view

  • The title page of the 1735 printing of “The Charter of the City of New-York”

    The Charter of the City of New-York

    Not currently on view

  • Front page of a 1726 edition of the New-York Gazette, featuring two columns of closely printed text.

    1726 issue of New-York Gazette

    Not currently on view

  • Watercolor painting on off-white paper of a scene from the West Side Story movie prologue in which a group of teenage boys stand around another boy who is in the midst of graffitiing SHARK on the street.

    Watercolor storyboard for West Side Story film prologue

    Not currently on view

  • Red-toned photo of an empty lot surrounded by piles of concrete rubble with a row of decrepit apartment buildings with fire escapes in the background.

    Exterior location shot for West Side Story

    Not currently on view

  • Historic black-and-white photo showing the Statue of Liberty under construction beneath a web of scaffolding.

    Album de la construction de la Statue de la Liberté (Photo #12)

    Not currently on view

  • Open journal with entries written in pencil; the pencil is attached to the right side of the journal

    Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi’s journal

    Not currently on view

  • Black-and-white photo of an Empire State Building structural worker balancing on a taught wire high up in the air with the rest of New York City shown far below him.

    Icarus, high up on Empire State by Lewis Wickes Hine

    Not currently on view

  • Typescript document on stapled pink paper, with the “New York Mattachine Newsletter” header printed in red and outlined by a red box

    New York Mattachine Newsletter reporting on the Stonewall Uprising

    Not currently on view

  • A scale model of a theatrical set, featuring the word “Cabaret” hanging from the rafters, a mirrored backdrop flanked by red curtains, and a small figure of the character of the Emcee pointing a cane and raising his top hat

    Set model for the Broadway production of Cabaret

    Not currently on view

  • Recording from Amelia Earhart’s International Broadcast in London, as picked up in New York by Silvertone

    Recording from Amelia Earhart’s International Broadcast in London

    Not currently on view

  • Collage on multi-colored paper with photos and illustrations of people and buildings.

    Romare Bearden’s Black Manhattan

    Not currently on view

  • Horizontal map of five panels showing Manhattan, colored in shades of green and tan

    Egbert L. Viele’s Topographical Atlas of the City of New York

    Not currently on view

  • Detailed horizontal map of Central Park showing roads and paths, trees, bodies of water, and structures

    Otto Sibeth’s Map of the Central Park

    Not currently on view

  • Historic 1862 photo of a view in Central Park, featuring the stairs and arches leading to Bethesda Fountain

    Two photographs from Central Park in 1862

    Not currently on view

  • Handwritten letter of brown ink on off-white paper printed with a header reading “Head Quarters Twelfth Corps, Army of the Potomoc”

    Letter from Assistant Adjutant-General H.C. Rodgers to Brigadier General Thomas Howard Ruger

    Not currently on view

  • Printed map on tan paper showing the streets of 18th-century New York.

    18th-century plan of New York City

    Not currently on view

  • Print on off-white paper of the street grid of Manhattan and portions of Brooklyn with handwritten annotations in red ink

    Map of the City of New York., with annotations

    Not currently on view

  • Wide, panoramic, sepia-toned photograph showing the construction of one of the Brooklyn Bridge’s tours and an expanse of the island of Manhattan

    Panoramic view of Manhattan, showing Brooklyn Bridge under construction

    Not currently on view

  • Photograph of an open diary, with a two-page spread featuring lined paper with cursive script writing

    Diary kept by Helen Lansing Grinnell 

    Not currently on view

  • Cover of a newsletter printed in two columns with the headline “Mafia on the pot: Mafia Control of Gay Bars Comes to Public’s Attention”

    The New York Hymnal

    Not currently on view

  • Closed publication with cover printed in black and purple ink, with a photograph of Richard Hell and noted contents including “link wray/nuyoricans/fashion/papal visit” and “Slum journal by Richard Hell”

    East Village Eye

    Not currently on view

  • Black-and-white photograph taken at upward angle of a skyscraper at left, with curved, iron fire escapes of an older building framing the composition at right

    Berenice Abbott’s photograph of the Murray Hill Hotel

    Not currently on view

  • An illustration of a train car design, featuring a color scheme of blue, red, and white, and “New York World’s Fair 1939” written on the side of the train car

    World’s Fair Pullman railway car design

    Not currently on view

  • Four illustrations of costume designs for the Sharks, referencing the names of cast members in the original production

    Costume designs for the original Broadway production of West Side Story

    Not currently on view

  • Detail of small bronze model of a larger sculpture called Lift Every Voice and Sing (Harp), which features a line of people of various heights standing close together so they resemble a harp.

    Explore More Themes