New York City in the 1970s and 1980s was marked by serious challenges to everyday life—graffiti-covered subways, rampant vandalism, piles of uncollected garbage, and high crime rates. Noise, drugs, and other social issues added to the city's struggles, maki…
From delicate snow showers to mighty blizzards, New Yorkers have danced with winter's icy tunes for decades. These historical snapshots, capturing snowfalls and blizzards from the 1900s to the 1980s, offer a peek into the city's frosty past. The images f…
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, New York City’s subway system was one of the most dangerous places a person could be. Lucky for those of us who never had the chance to see it, Swiss photographer Willy Spiller was there, and the dark and atmospher…
From 1981 to 1984, the photographer Bud Glick worked for the New York Chinatown History Project (NYCHP) — today the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) — capturing the lives of the neighborhood’s denizens. From intimate portraits of people in their apar…
Few places captured the raw glamour and excess of 1970s New York quite like Studio 54. At a time when the city pulsed with disco rhythms and cultural experimentation, this Midtown nightclub emerged as the ultimate stage for celebrity encounters, boundary-pushi…
In the 1980s, Demi Moore was a fresh talent in a decade brimming with big dreams and fearless style. These photos pull us back to that vibrant era, capturing a young Demi on the edge of fame, surrounded by a world of big hair, bold choices, and raw ambition…
The 1980s saw the AIDS epidemic surge to catastrophic levels, leaving communities devastated and countless lives hanging in the balance. Across the U.S. and beyond, people were dying at an alarming rate, while others were gripped by fear of a mysterious dis…
Old photos of New York City's Easter Parade offer a captivating glimpse into the past, showcasing the extravagant celebrations of the city's elite during the early 20th century. The Easter Parade was an annual event that saw New Yorkers dressed in their fin…
When McDonald’s was first founded in the 1940s by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, it was actually a barbecue-centric restaurant, serving items like ribs and barbecued pork sandwiches. But once Ray Kroc took the restaurant over, he simplified the menu, s…
From miniskirted hostesses to clear suggestive lines, companies have a long history of using women to sell air travel. This was the time when flying was both the literal and figurative height of sexiness. While “sex sells” is one of those universally-known …
A boom in New York’s population in the mid-to-late 1800s led to the rise of tenement housing in lower Manhattan. Tenements were low-rise buildings with multiple apartments, which were narrow and typically made up of three rooms. Because rents were low, te…
Mike Tyson, born on June 30, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York, is a name that will forever be etched in the records of professional boxing history. His career, particularly during the 1980s, left an indelible mark on the sport and captivated audiences around…
From the 1960s to the late 1980s, New York City’s iconic Times Square was a difficult place to be. Felony and crime rates were high, despite heightened police existence. A plethora of go-go bars, sex shops, peep show establishments, and adult theaters becam…
This collection of photographs shows some of the world's oldest and oddest vending machines. Nowadays almost anything imaginable can now be purchased from the vending machines, however, the trend for automated purchases is nothing new, as these vintage phot…
These stunning photographs show how New York City looked like in the 1880s and 1890s. The images depict the streets of the city that never sleeps, the hustling crowds of Manhattan, swimmers at Coney Island, and people’s everyday life. The photographs, t…
With the rise of the daily newspapers in the 1880s, more than half of all newspapers in the United States were sold by newsboys (and a few newsgirls). Newspapers that previously had appeared only in morning editions began to be offered in afternoon edit…
He was “the Eighth Wonder of the World,” the biggest attraction in the history of professional wrestling. At seven-foot-four (2.23m), 450 pounds (205kg), André the Giant was a living, breathing legend, the kind of make-believe figure usually encountered on…
The flight attendant occupation took permanent shape in the 1930s as “women’s work,” that is, work not only predominately performed by women but also defined as embodying white, middle-class ideals of femininity. As the nascent commercial aviation indus…
These amazing photochrom postcards of New York City were procured by the Detroit Publishing Company and offer a spectacular view of the Big Apple in natural colors. In 1898, the modern City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (unti…
Long before the age of computerized printing presses and journalists being able to file stories via computer, the process of creating the day’s newspaper was a much more arduous, hand-made process. In September 1942, Office of War Information photograph…