New York Times Launches Historic Photography Tumblr

Well, it's about time someone did something with all those old photos the New York Times has been sitting on for, oh, the past hundred and fifty years or so.

The Times recently launched a Tumblr site dedicated to sharing and archiving millions of historic photographs that might not have been seen and enjoyed otherwise. Here's more on their new site:

The New York Times has just launched a Tumblr blog called ‘ The Lively Morgue’ showcasing great photographs from their archives, accompanied by the notes that appear on the back of each one.

According to NYT social media editor Liz Heron, the blog “draws from the historical riches of [their] photography morgue” which houses some 5 to 6 million prints and 300, 000 sacks of negatives.

More interesting are the details that readers often don’t get to see—the scribbles and stamps on the reverse side of each photo that tells you when and how often a photo was used and in what context.

'The Lively Morgue' is essentially a collection of great black and white photographs that takes you on a nostalgic and historically important journey and at the same time, gives a peek into what goes on in the one of the world’s most established newsroom.

There isn't a ton of pics to peruse on The Lively Morgue just yet, but I'll be waiting impatiently for them to continue adding photos to the site in the upcoming months, and I think it's rather cool that they'll even sell you a print if you find a pic you just can't live without.

Link --via DesignTAXI

Newest 2

Newest 2 Comments

I was an illustrator - freelancing at the Times for 10 years from '75 to '85. In that time, I spent a lot of days in the Morgue researching images for my jobs. There were many interesting categories of images I would request that were not part of the job, including airships, streamlined transport, mob hits and car wrecks. There was a long drawer of gruesome auto, train and plane accidents from the 30s and 40s that would never be published in the paper, but somehow was collected and saved. I was the only person who requested any images from this file in those 10 years. (My interest in these disturbing images comes by my school theses of the work of Weegee.) I wonder if the Times will allow any access to these photos?