New exhibit celebrates 400 years of NYC history and the people who shaped it
Astor Theatre, 45th Street and Broadway, December 24, 1936. Courtesy of NYC Municipal Archives.
What makes New York City, New York City? That’s one question a new online exhibit from the city’s Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) explores. Featuring more than 100 items from the city’s archival and library collections, “NYC’s Story: The City on Record” uses government records that reveal the 400 years of NYC history, from documents showing land transfers in 17th-century Queens to a 2025 primary election ballot.
The online exhibit aims to celebrate the city’s history during the 250th anniversary of the United States founding. “NYC’s Story” categorizes records by three questions: Who is a New Yorker? How was NYC built? What Makes NYC, NYC?
“A team of DORIS employees combed through centuries of government records to pull unique items that shed light on the origin, growth and population of New York City,” Pauline Toole, commissioner of DORIS, said.
“Exploring records above the diverse residents of the City, how it was built, and what makes it unique provides insight on the struggles and successes of the past and how best to move forward together.”
Items include documents showing a woodcut illustration of a 17th-century Manhattan Indian village; forfeitures of Loyalist properties after the Revolutionary War; an advertisement for Nathan’s hot dogs at the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens; a map showing farmland owned by formerly enslaved New Yorkers; a 1930s photograph of the Astor Theatre included in the WPA’s NYC Guide; and a video of David N Dinkins’ 1990 inauguration.
“There’s no place in the world like New York because there are no people like New Yorkers. This exhibition brings us face to face with the many layers of our city’s 400-year history—the stories that have been carefully preserved and those nearly lost to time,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
“It is a reminder that our city is shaped not just by moments of power, but by the everyday lives of the people who built it,” Mamdani said in a statement.”
Explore the full exhibit at RememberNYC.nyc.
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