PHOTOS FROM THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY ON FLICKR

The first part of this posting and the information it contains has been taken from Time Out New York Issue 693 : Jan 8–14, 2009
(http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/tv-dvd/70271/new-york-public-librarys-flickr-stream.)

"The Commons project is Flickr’s ongoing attempt to make publicly held photos more accessible...So far, it’s a big success: The Library of Congress has posted nearly 5,000 photos, and more and more cultural heritage institutions have been joining in. Last month, the New York Public Library got in on the action, posting around 1,300 of its photos." (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nypl/)

"The 16 sets of photos include images of early modern dance, Egypt, Japan in the late 19th century, cinema from 1912–14 and cyanotypes of British algae, among others...but my favorites are the pictures of New York. The shots from Ellis Island are fascinating but not sentimental. Berenice Abbott’s famous 'Changing New York' series perpetually absorbs new meaning. And the library’s documentation of its own history, in a set called 'NYPL: Work with Schools,' shows that even in 1910 there were kids...climbing all over each other to get to more books."
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You will also be interested to learn about the NYPL Digital Gallery:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/
"NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 640,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs."