Consider the world outside a museum. Imagine that the world that we live in is really another kind of museum where the works of art exist in the landscape itself. What if you could have a gallery guide which would tell you about the buildings and artworks you find around you. It would show you what the place used to look like and introduce you to some of the people who shaped it.

Our growing virtual collection of photographs and drawings, maps and documents, podcasts and videos tell the stories of how some of the more iconic places in our cities got to be the way they are and what they might become.

Explore buildings of the past, present and future. Look at the vast selection of artwork that graces the public realm. And discover how places have evolved over time. Deconstruct the layers of history that form the fabric of our urban landscape. Meet people who have made their mark on our cities and country who have lived in the past or are living now. Listen to their voices. Take (or make) a tour. And join us at an event either virtual or real.

Our curators are the artists, architects, photographers and historians who created the images, podcasts and videos to share their knowledge and insights. Our collaborators are museums, universities, cities, and civic organizations who are the stewards of our shared cultural history.

Use the guide online or take it with you on your phone…..

Like the cities we live in, this is a work in progress……..Enjoy!

On This Day
January 9, 1776 Thomas Paine`s 47 page document which clearly laid out the moral argument for revolution becoming the best selling American title of all time in relation to its population.
On This Day
January 11, 1755 Alexander Hamilton was born in Nevis in the British West Indies. By the time he was murdered in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804, he had fought in the Revolution, helped...
On This Day
January 01, 1966 The 12 day transit strike which brought the incoming administration of Mayor Lindsay to a standstill ended with a 15% wage boost for the transit workers and a new Taylors...
On This Day
January 17, 1872 Commissioned by Alfred de Groot, a retired Hudson Valley Steamboat Captain, Ernest Plassman`s sculpture of Benjamin Franklin was unveiled in an elaborate...
On This Day
January 01 1965 Architect Minoru Yamasaki presented his design for the World Trade Center
On This Day
January 19, 1770 the first bloodshed on the English colonies was the Battle of Golden Hill
On This Day
January 25, 1890 Joseph Pulitzer marked Nellie Bly`s triumphal return from her record breaking 72 day circumnavigation of the globe to best Jules Verne`s fictional hero Phileas Fogg
On This Day
October 17, 1777 General John Burgoyne surrenders his army at Saratoga NY to the Continental Army commanded by General Horatio Gates who is buried in an unmarked grave at Trinity Cemetery.
On This Day
October 17, 1781 British General Charles Lord Cornwallis surrendered at the Siege of Yorktown which marks the definitive end to the Revolutionary War. Alexander Hamilton, a key aide...
On This Day
October 17, 1888 Thomas Alva Edison files a patent for the phonograph
On This Day
October 17, 1919 the Radio Corporation of America was incorporated
On This Day
October 17, 1949 Ticker Tape parade honoring Jawaharlal Nehru
On This Day
October 17, 1965 The New York World's Fair ends which introduced Belgium Waffles, 'it’s a Small World' and the Mustang, the World Trade Center model, and color television...
On This Day
October 17, 1975 NY City comes within 2 hours of bankruptcy and was saved by $150 million from the Teachers Union Pension fund.
On This Day
October 18, 1842 Samuel Morse lays NY City's first telegraph cable between the Battery & Governors Island but the cable is soon snapped by a ships anchor
On This Day
October 18, 1892 First long distance phone line between NY & Chicago begins operation
On This Day
October 18, 1926 Ticker Tape parade honoring Queen Marie of Romania
In This Photo
1931 - "Fête Moderne - a Fantasie in Flame and Silver" Beaux Arts Ball Guests who paid $15 for a ticket to the 1931 Beaux Arts Ball were promised admission to something...
In This Photo
1905 - Mark Twain's 70th Birthday at Delmonico's Hosted by Colonel George Harvey, the editor of Harper's Weekly the group at 'Table T, ' included May Isabel Fisk, John Kendrick Bangs...
In This Photo
1932 - Park Avenue View down Park Avenue from 51st Street showing St. Barts and the new Art Deco skyscrapers including the General Electric Building (Cross & Cross, 570...
In This Photo
1900's - Broad Street The Stock Exchange, On Broad Street, looking South from Wall Street
In This Photo
Woolworth Building Woolworth Building, Post Office at City Hall, St. Paul's Chapel in the foreground. With the Municipal Building behind Printing House square.
What Happened Here
1835 Wall Street Fire Beginning in a 5 story warehouse on Dec 16th at 25 Merchant (Beaver) street, the fire was so bright that people 90 miles away in Philadelphia could...
What Happened Here
1857 Toilet Paper Joseph C. Gayetty, sold flat sheets of commercially produced "Medicated Paper for the WC" for the fairly expensive price of 1,000 sheets for a dollar out of his shop which becomes
What Happened Here
1865 Abraham Lincoln Lying in State in City Hall's Rotunda The funeral cortege stopped in New York for 23 hours, long enough for 500,000 people to pass at the rate of 80 people per minute to view Abraham Lincoln's corpse.
What Happened Here
1889 Nellie Bly With 2 days notice, Nellie Bly packed an overnight bag and set off to best Phineas Fogg's 80 day trip around the world. She made it in a well publicized 72 with a final cross country sprint in a single car train chartered by Joseph Pulitzer.
What Happened Here
1897 Pneumatic Tubes The Post office began using a pneumatic tube system which shot enormous canisters of mail around the city at 35 miles an hour At its peak, the system carried 95,000 letters a day -- about 30 percent of all New York's mail.
What Happened Here
1897 Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus On Sept 21, an editorial in the NY Sun assures letter writer 8-year old Virginia O'Hanlon that
What Happened Here
1918 Charlie Chaplin at Federal HallDouglas Fairbanks and Chaplin hold a Liberty Bond Rally on Wall St - 20,000 people come out.
What Happened Here
1957 Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand wrote the Fountainhead from a desk in Ely Jacque Kahn's (2 Park Ave / Seagram) architectural firm; in Atlas Shrugged, the Helmsley Building became Taggert Transcontinental and Grand Central was transformed into the Taggert station.
What Happened Here
2006 350,000 stale crackers While performing routine maintenance under Brooklyn Bridge's main entrance ramp, workers found a cavernous room with a stockpile of water drums, medical supplies and 350,000 stale crackers.

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