Changing New York [graphic] / Berenice Abbott, 1936-1938

Abbott, Berenice, b. 1898 d. 1991
Photographer
New York, N.Y.

Collection size: 214 photographic prints

Collection Summary: Photographs of New York City taken by Berenice Abbott for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration and sponsored by the Museum of the City of New York. Included are exterior and occasional interior views of churches, business areas, stores, docks, bridges, public houses, residences, and theaters in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. A list of titles, giving exact sites, accompanies the collection. The resulting Changing New York project contains 305 photographs supported by historical data compiled by her staff of researchers. In April 1939, E. P. Dutton & Co. published Changing New York, a guidebook aimed at visitors to the New York Worlds Fair, which included ninety-seven of Abbotts photographs with captions written by Elizabeth McCausland, an esteemed art critic and Abbotts companion.

Biographical/Historical Note: Abbott was a photographer of New York, N.Y, born in 1898 in Springfield, Ohio; died Dec. 9, 1991.

Donated anonymously 1957.

How to Use this Collection

• The photographs and list of titles are available on microfilm reel 376 at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
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Also in the Archives

• Image Gallery items from other collections related to Abbott, Berenice

Related Materials

Also in the Archives of American Art are the papers of Elizabeth McCausland which contain an additional set of photographic prints relating to Changing New York.