Museum of the City of New York

The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is without a doubt one of the least recognized jewels of New York's cultural scene. Dedicated to providing innovative learning opportunities which interpret New York City's rich political, social, intellectual, artistic, and cultural heritages, the Museum makes for a fascinating visit. As the museum underwent extensive renovations, it will probably garner a lot more attention by visitors and native New Yorkers alike. Among the recent additions: a two level 3,000 foot glass-clad gallery pavilion, a vault which holds the museum's silver collection, and a new research room. The exterior façade has also been restored and re-landscaped with a 4,700-square-foot front terrace facing Fifth Avenue. The museum also has full disability access.

The Museum's permanent and temporary exhibitions, in coordination with educational programming and publications, reflect the complexity of the history of New York City, the scope and depth of the Museum's collections, and the diversity of the Museum's audiences. The Museum's collections are among the most substantial and voluminous of their kind. There are an estimated 1.5 million objects under the auspices of the Museum, of which 2,000 are paintings ranging in date from the seventeenth century to the present. Among the Museum's most celebrated holdings are its prints, photographs and drawings. Representative of the very best in fine art photography and printmaking, as well as some of the City's most intriguing and valuable visual documentation, this collection is known for its comprehensive archives of architecture, businesses, maps, and photojournalism. The Museum is also home to collections of work by photographer Berenice Abbott, journalist Jacob Riis, and printmakers Currier & Ives, among others. The Museum also boasts the most complete collection devoted to New York professional theater including 3,500 costumes, props, costume sketches set designs and models, production photographs, playbills, scripts, and theatrical memorabilia. The MCNY Costume Collection features garment types worn by New Yorkers from seventeenth-century Dutch women to today's fashion leaders. The holdings are matchless in their breadth and variety, from christening gowns and swaddling bands to sports uniforms and outerwear. The collection has emerged as one of the most preeminent resources for fashion scholarship. A wealth of other New York-related artifacts, part of the cultural patrimony of New Yorkers, is also part of the MCNY collection. Rare and unique toys, fire-fighting equipment through the centuries, ship's figure heads, transport vehicles including - an omnibus, Bellevue Hospital ambulance, nineteenth-century police paddy wagon and 1980 Checker cab - join Yankee Stadium seats, the trademark hats of Congresswoman and women's rights activist Bella Abzug, a Vera Maxwell-designed war workers jumpsuit, and an early 20th-century barber's chair are just some of the types of artifacts that chronicle the history of the City on display at the Museum.