New York City Tax Photographs

I received the following question in my e-mail this week: 

I remember within the last 6 months seeing a mention of a source for photos of each of the homes mentioned in a New York City census report – for the late 1800s.  This was a hint sent by a fellow family hunter, and I thought at the time that such a photo would make a good present for my daughter-in-law who knew little about her mother becaase she had died on the day that her baby was born.  I thought that I had made a note of the source for such pictures, but like so many good ideas, I can’t find the note.  Can anyone help? 

Thanks .. Mary Bready

I’m not aware of any photographs from the late 1800s, but the Municipal Archives in New York does sell photographs from around 1940. According to the website,

Between 1939 and 1941, the city photographed every house and building in the five Boroughs. Copies of these unique images are now available for purchase.

Click here to learn more or to order a photograph. It sounds like a lovely gift for your daughter-in-law!

 

3 thoughts on “New York City Tax Photographs

  1. Pingback: New York City Tax Photographs

  2. The previouis comments are so true! The City of New York provided me, upon my request and a reasonable payment, a photograph of the Manhattan apartment building where my family lived in the earlier part of my life. Unfortunately, it was photographed from the side and from across Amsterdam Avenue. The real beauty was at the front of that building, and its cathedral doors with huge frosted glass insets that pictured Ceres, the Greek Goddess of Agriculture. When I last visited the neighorhood, the glass qlass was gone from the doors and I hope an appreciative person has rescued them. [email protected]

  3. Yes, it is a little costly but a great addition to a story. I ordered one of the tenament building my mother’s ancestrys lived in. Which in the 1900’s was probably full of fellow Irish families. I did a search of its residents today and all had latino names. “As the world turns” The photos may be 1930 but they are of the same building built in the 1800’s.

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