Plane crash at Sterling Place & Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, December 16, 1960. (Photo courtesy of NYC Department of Records/Municipal Archives)

You don’t have to be a New Yorker to appreciate the 900,000 plus images available online through the NYC Department of Records archives. Some are photographs of well-known icons like the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge, while others are Wee Gee-esque in their grit or as mundane as photos documenting local school buildings. Many of the images date back to the late 1800s.  

Images are watermarked but prints are available for purchase. They're pricey though, so unless an image has a special meaning for you, stick to browsing. An information panel for each image provides some interesting data, including the original media - we saw more than a few digitized from lantern slides.