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Park West Camera Club records

Call Number

PR 368

Date

1946-2017, inclusive

Creator

Park West Camera Club (New York, N.Y.)

Extent

11.3 Linear feet in 3 document boxes, one flat box, and 11 flat files.

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

The Park West Camera Club records include newsletters (primarily 1984-2014), meeting minutes (primarily 1947-1959 and some from the late 1970s and early 1980s), and original member photography, among other documents. The club was founded in 1937 as an educational offering of the New York City YMCA's 63rd Street branch, and the organization continues, though now independent of the YMCA. Original photographs in the collection range from the 1940s into the early 2000s.

Biographical / Historical

The Park West Camera Club was founded in 1937. Originally called the Hypo Hounds, the club began as an educational offering of the 63rd Street branch of the YMCA in New York City. The group changed its name to Park West Camera Club in 1952. It remained affiliated with the YMCA for several decades, until the 1990s or early 2000s. At the YMCA the group had a basement meeting space with equipment for developing photographs. This space was also used to house the organization's records and select member photography. In the 1990s, the basement space flooded, destroying many records and photographs, and damaging others. The incident spurred the creation of an Archives Committee led by Myrna Harrison-Changar, which eventually drew on the salvaged material to mount the exhibition Eight Decades of Photography in 2017 in celebration of PWCC's 80th anniversary. The exhibition was held at the Soho Gallery in Tribeca, where PWCC had taken up residence after it spun off from its YMCA affiliation. As of 2018, PWCC still meets weekly at the Gallery.

(The above note was based on information from the collection and from PWCC's website.)

Arrangement

The collection is organized in four series:

Series I. Newsletters (1984-2014)

Series II. Administrative Files (1946-1959, 1978-2017)

Series III. Club Activities and Exhibitions (1947-2017)

Series IV. Photography by Members (1940s-2000s)

Scope and Contents

The collection includes newsletters and administrative records of the Park West Camera Club (PWCC), and examples of the photographs taken by its members. The records are not complete, but do hold substantial runs of important documents. The newsletters date primarily from 1984 to 2014. Minutes of meetings are primarily from 1947-1959, with some from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some of the club's group activities are documented, most notably its 2015 exhibition Through Our Eyes and the 2017 exhibition celebrating PWCC's 80th anniversary. Original photographic prints by members comprise a significant part of the collection. These photographs range in date from the 1940s to the early 2000s.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to qualified researchers by appointment only.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to reproduce any Print Room holdings through publication must be obtained from: Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 270. Fax: (212) 579-8794

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as: Park West Camera Club records, PR 368, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of the Park West Camera Club, 2018.

Collection processed by

Ariana Heinsdorf and Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:17 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

The collection was processed by archivist Larry Weimer and archival intern Ariana Heinsdorf in 2018.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024