Thread by @doctorow

During the New Deal, the WPA and the NYC Tax Department sent photographers to every municipal building in the five boroughs, producing a geotagged archive of the city's streetscenes from 1939-41.

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These images were placed in an interactive map system by @julianboilen, called "Street View of 1940s New York," which lets you click around a map of the city to navigate these photos geographically.

1940s.nyc/map#13.69/40.7…

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It's a legit masterpiece, and endlessly fascinating, a veritable time-machine.

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One note: Boilen says that the use of the images is limited to NYC's terms and conditions, but these were federally commissioned works and are presumptively in the public domain.

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The NYC guidelines basically say, "Don't violate copyright." These are neither copyrighted nor copyrightable. As far as I can tell: you're good.

www1.nyc.gov/site/records/a…

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PS: Don't miss the photographers' outtakes, which are a delightful mix of impromptu portraits, fatfingers, and bloopers:

1940s.nyc/outtakes#16.69…

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