New York, New York, U.S., Tax Photos, 1940

About the New York, New York, U.S., Tax Photos, 1940

General collection information

This collection includes photographs taken in 1940 of buildings located in the five boroughs of New York City. The photographs are part of a collection that spans from 1939 to 1951, with most of the photographs taken between 1939 and 1941. The collection can be searched by block or lot numbers or by address. The collection doesn't include some tax-exempt buildings, parcels with vacant lots, or buildings missed by the original photographers.

Using this collection

Photographs in this collection may include the following:

This collection can provide visual details of New York City buildings that your ancestor owned. You also may find images of buildings where your ancestors worked or lived. Photographs of the places associated with your family can provide a visual element for your family tree. Some photographs offer a view of life in New York City in 1940 in addition to documenting buildings for tax purposes.

Collection in context

The photographs are primary historical sources that were created by the New York State Tax Department and the federal government's Works Progress Administration. The original negatives are housed by the New York City Department of Records and Information Services.

The photographs in this collection were taken to provide visual evidence for a new property card system for assessing real property tax in New York City. When it was transferred from the city's Finance Department to the Municipal Archives in 1980, the collection included more than 2,000 strips of 35-mm black-and-white nitrate negative film, but the film was too fragile for patrons to use.

In 1988, the Municipal Archives began a project to create a second-generation negative image and new positive images that were used to create a microfilmed archive of the photographs. The project was funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the New York State Library, the Municipal Archives Reference and Research Fund, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

By the early 2000s, the second generation negative images were deteriorating. The project to digitize the photographs was started in 2017 and took about two years to complete.

Bibliography

New York City Department of Records and Information Services. "1940s Tax Department photographs." Accessed January 30, 2023. https://a860-collectionguides.nyc.gov/repositories/2/resources/64.

---. "Browse DOF: Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos." Accessed January 30, 2023. https://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/NYCMA~5~5.

O'Toole, Kelli. "The 1940 Tax Photos-A Well-Traveled Collection." New York City Department of Records and Information Services. Accessed January 30, 2023. https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2018/11/2/the-1940-tax-photosa-well-traveled-collection.