The New York City Municipal Archives (NYCMA) is a division of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services, located in the

Surrogate's Courthouse The Surrogate's Courthouse (also the Hall of Records and 31 Chambers Street) is a historic building at the northwest corner of Chambers and Centre Streets in the Civic Center of Manhattan in New York City. Completed in 1907, it was desi ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Founded in 1950, the Municipal Archives preserves and makes accessible records created by the

government of New York City The government of New York City, headquartered at New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan, is organized under the New York City Charter and provides for a mayor-council system. The mayor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for the ...

(including the mayor's office, city agencies, the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

, the Comptroller, borough presidents and the Public Advocate). The collections include manuscripts, sound recordings, film and tape footage, maps, blueprints, photographs and digital media.

Genealogy and family history

The New York City Municipal Archives preserves and makes available more than 10 million historical vital records (birth, marriage and death certificates) for all five boroughs (

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

and Staten Island). Researchers have open access to the indexes, and both microfilmed and digital copies of vital records on-site in the Municipal Library and Archives Reference Room. Copies of vital records can be ordered through the Department of Records and Information Services.

Municipal Archive units

The Municipal Archives consists of four units to ensure the multi-format collections created by New York City Government are acquired, described, preserved and made publicly accessible. They are: * Appraisals and Accessions unit works with the Department's Records Management Division to formally acquire city records with historical, cultural or other value. * Collections Management unit implements the core stewardship standards for maintaining a records depository through industry-standard descriptions and access tools. * Conservation and Preservation unit ensures environmental and physical actions are taken to anticipate, prevent, reduce or halt the deterioration of library and archival materials. The unit manages a professional paper conservation lab. * Digital Programs unit manages the digital infrastructure and implements the policies and workflows for digitized and born-digital materials.

Collections

The archives’ collections consist of more than 200,000 cubic feet and 185 TB of digital records in the

. Highlights include documents from the first Dutch colonial government in New Amsterdam, the most comprehensive collection of records pertaining to the administration of criminal justice in the English-speaking world, two centuries of mayoral papers, the architectural plans for construction of

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

and the Brooklyn Bridge, and a nationally recognized collection of public education records. The online portal offers 1.6 million images including pictures of every house and building in the city dating from 1940 and 1985.

Internal collections

* Artifacts and Memorial Collections of the World Trade Center Attack on September 11, 2001
Almshouse, 1758-1953
*Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, 1789-1979
Board of Education, 1842-2002
*Brooklyn Bridge, 1867-1938 *Department of Buildings, 1866-1975 *Census *City Cemetery, 1881-1950s *City Council, 1647-1977
Civil List, 1883-1967/68
*Coroner and Office of Chief Medical Examiner, 1823-1950 *Court Records, 1684-1966 *District Attorney Records, 1895-1971
Genealogy, 1795-1948Mayors, 1849-presentNew Amsterdam Records, 1647-1862
*New York County Court of General Sessions Grand Jury Indictments, 1879-1893 *"Old Towns," 1663-1898 *Department of Parks, 1850-1960 *Website of Mayor Bloomberg, 2002-2013 *Website of Mayor Giuliani, 1994-2001
WNYC, 1936-198
1 an
WNYC
*WPA Federal Writers' Project (NYC Unit), 1936-1943 The Municipal Archives presents several exhibits each year. Recent exhibits include Feeding the City: The Unpublished WPA manuscript; Unlikely Historians showcasing materials collected by the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

while conducting surveillance between 1960 and 1975; and Little Syria, presented in cooperation with the Arab American National Museum. The Archives has developed various projects to engage non-traditional audiences including participation in Photoville on an annual basis, gathering community stories from residents of City neighborhoods, and sponsoring a five-year celebration of American women winning suffrage.

References

External links

New York City Municipal Archives

Additional exhibit information
www.archives.nyc.
NYMA Online Gallery
{{authority control Government of New York City 1950 establishments in New York City Government agencies established in 1950 Archives in the United States City archives