Scope and Contents note

Series I consists of a series of 162 gelatin silver photographs, ranging in size from 8 x 10 to 13 1/4 x 22 inches, that were published in Feininger's 1978 volume New York in the Forties. Photographs are arranged alphabetically by subjects which were assigned during processing. Photographs depict New York City neighborhoods, buildings, street life, shops, bridges and elevated railroads between ca. 1939 and 1954. His classic telephoto views of the New York skyline, the crowds of 42nd Street, and the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge rising above its pedestrian traffic make up the bulk of this series. In the introduction to  New York in the Forties, John von Hartz notes that the "the 40s linger in the collective consciousness of New Yorkers as 'the good old days,'" and while Feininger's photographs show the grandeur of the towering cityscape, he also points his camera at a more ominous side of New York in his portraits of men at tattoo parlors on the Bowery, the poor shoeshine man on Fifth Avenue, desperate men lined up outside an employment agency at the tail end of the depression, and the dark skyline of the World War II dimouts.

Feininger often focused his lens on the shops, vendors and other market places of the city. His series of photographs on the Jewish Lower East Side shows the preponderance of the Yiddish language on signs and the variety of religious Judaica and kosher food shops catering to the needs of the local community. Views of Chinatown shops portray men lined up to read the latest war-related headlines on the window of a Chinese language newspaper, as well as Chinese groceries and vendors. Other views show Italians on Mulberry Street and grocery stores in Harlem.

Views of New Yorkers engaging in leisure time activities are included in Feininger's photographs of Coney Island and Central Park. Other subjects include the elevated railroads, ship traffic, passengers boarding ocean liners on the Hudson River, and the lights and theaters of Times Square. Snow covered land- and cityscapes can also be found under the subjects South Street and Lower Manhattan Waterfront, Central Park, and Fifth Avenue.

One folder of oversize hinged views from this series is housed at the end of the collection in Flat Files, Folder 87. Notes have been provided throughout the folder listing for this series to lead researchers to pertinent items.

Most of the photographs in this series are stamped, dated, and signed by the photographer. Photographs from this series were exhibited in The New-York Historical Society exhibit New York in the Forties: Photographs by Andreas Feininger in 1978.

Scope and Contents note

Series II consists of a group of ca. 450 photographs 5 x 7 to 11 x 14 inches, that were taken by Feininger for his 1954 book The Face of New York: The City As It Was and As It Is, which contrasted photographs of historical depictions of New York with more modern photographs. This series consists of Feininger's photographs of historical prints, drawings, and artworks (some of which came from the collections of the Museum of the City of New York), and includes copy photographs of the work of earlier New York photographers such as William J. Roege, J.S. Johnston, Jacob Riis, and others. This series does not contain any of Feininger's modern photography used in the book. Photographs are arranged alphabetically by subjects which were assigned during processing. Numerous photographs within this series are duplicates; three folders of 11 x 14 inch duplicate prints are filed at the end of the series; other duplicates are filed together under the appropriate subject. Most of the photographs in this series are not dated and are presumed to have been taken generally in the years before the book's publication in 1954; the subjects depicted in the photographs date from as early as the 17th century, for example in a photograph of a 1651 drawing of houses in New Amsterdam.

Some of the photographs in this series bear Feininger's stamp, but many do not, although they were donated by Feininger as a set from The Face of New York book project.

Scope and Contents note

Series III consists of ca. 154 of Andreas Feininger's photographs of Manhattan taken from the early 1970s through the 1980s, many of which were exhibited in The New-York Historical Society's shows Manhattan Now: 14 Photographers Look at the Form of the City (1974),  Manhattan Observed: Fourteen Photographers Look at New York, 1972-1981 (1981-1982), and  The Deuce: Photographs of Times Square by Andreas Feininger (1998). Photographs are filed alphabetically by subject.

Photographs focus on a variety of subjects, the largest of which are Times Square; Graffiti; Signs, Murals, Posters, and Billboards; and Reflections. Many of the photographs of graffiti feature a life-sized black painted figure Feininger refers to as "Shadowman," painted in a variety of locations and variations on buildings and walls. Photographs of signs, murals, posters and billboards depict everything from hand-painted signs in foreign languages to explicit posters for strip clubs. Photographs on security and vandalism reflect Feininger's descriptive annotations on his photographs of a security gate and locked and vandalized bicycles. Feininger's photographs depicting construction, fire escapes, reflections, and water tanks focus on structure and pattern in the architecture of the city. The largest group of photographs depict the Times Square area, especially the signs for sex shops, strip clubs, and theaters of the 1970s and 1980s.

Most of the photographs in this series bear Feininger's stamp and a number reflecting the type of film and date; most are also signed and dated by the photographer.

At the end of this series are a group of oversize exhibition photographs printed for The New-York Historical Society and Raffi Custom Photo Lab, Inc. from Feininger's negatives for several of the aforementioned exhibits. Subjects include billboards, signs, Times Square, skyscrapers and reflections; notes are provided under subjects in the folder listing to lead researchers to pertinent exhibition photographs.

Scope and Contents note

Oversize photographs from Series I