Ben Kabakow Photographic Slides
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Abstract
This collection contains 686 photographic slides taken by New York City resident Ben Kabakow (1907-1985). The slides span the period from 1958-1980 and are mainly of New York City, with just a few from Albany and other locations.
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of 686 photographic slides taken by New York City resident Ben Kabakow (1907-1985). The slides span the period from 1958 to 1980 and have been organized by subject matter.
Skyline and City Views includes many views of the power plant on 16th Street and Avenue C, just across the street from Stuyvesant Town where Kabakow lived for a time, as well as general views of the skyline from various vantage points.
Hudson and East Rivers includes many types of boats.
Neighborhoods includes Chinatown, Gramercy Park, Greenwich Village, East Village and the Lower East Side.
Street scenes includes 5th Avenue, 26th Street, 42nd Street, flea markets and stores, playgrounds, and other iconic city scenes (murals, pigeons, vagrants, old shack, tenement house, etc.).
Buildings and Sites includes City Hall, Municipal Building, Rockefeller Center, United Nations, World Trade Center, Met Life Building, Friend's School, New York Home for the Aged, Public Bath on 24th Street, churches, Little Red Light House, Grant's Tomb, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and South Ferry.
Museums and Public Sculpture includes the Museum of Modern Art (interior views), Guggenheim Museum (interior views), Floating Photography Museum, The Cloisters and Fort Tryon, and various public sculptures.
Transportation Stations includes Idlewild (later John F. Kennedy) Airport, Grand Central Station, and Pennsylvania Station under construction.
Events includes the 1965 Pulaski Parade and other unidentified parades, 1965 World's Fair, a 1970 rally in Union Square, and what appears to be the 1973 Korean Fair.
Brooklyn and the Bronx includes Coney Island, the Promenade, Our Lady of Lebanon church doors, general Brooklyn views, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, New York Botanical Garden (Bronx), Bronx Zoo, Bronx River, curling on the Bronx River, Riverdale, and Bronx snow scenes.
Kabakow home includes a few interior shots of Kabakow's successive homes in the Bronx, in Stuyvesant Town, and at 271 Avenue C.
Unidentified and/or locations outside New York City includes a few shots of the State Capital in Albany and one shot of the Amir Center in Jerusalem.
Subjects
Access Restrictions
Open to qualified researchers by appointment only. To schedule an appointment, contact the Print Room Librarian at printroom@nyhistory.org.
Use Restrictions
Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Preferred Citation
The collection should be cited as: Ben Kabakow Photographic Slides, PR 413, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Ben Kabakow's daughter, Sunny Fischer, 2007.
Separated Materials
This collection was separated from the New York City Photographic Slides Collection PR 278 in April 2020.