New York Transit Museum

The New York Transit Museum will enhance access to a collection of prints and negatives documenting the first line to open in the New York City subway system. The Route 1 collection contains an estimated 5,000 prints and 3,350 negatives that depict the 28 subway stations and 9.1 miles of tunnels that opened on October 27th, 1904. The museum will engage two contract archivists to catalog, digitize, rehouse, and create a finding aid for the images. The museum will use the newly digitized images in exhibitions and programming in addition to sharing them through social media and its online collections portal. The museum will also display selections of the images at the transit system’s main facility, on public kiosks throughout Manhattan, and on digital screens throughout the subway system, promoting a greater public understanding of the local history of transit.