Series VII: Photographs

The many photographs in this collection provide a rich visual record of the activities and people associated with BCNY. Photographs span the period from the 1890's to 2000's. Although most photographs are undated, it appears that the 1940's and 1950's are especially well documented.

Photographs are generally arranged by subject, including: neighborhood scenes; clubhouse buildings; sports (including team shots as well as game and action shots); recreational activities such as art, photography, glee club and many others; camp photographs; program activities (primarily educational); theatrical productions; pictures and portraits of officers, alumni and boys; and photographs of various fund-raising events (note that photographs of the All-Star Annual Hall of Fame event are housed separately in Series VI, Benefit events).

In some cases, photographs by identified photographers are arranged by the name of the photographer. There are many photographs by Sam Reiss (1910-1975), better known for his photography of the labor movement in New York City; other photographers include Paul Parker, Heini Mayr, and Dick Meek. The majority of the photographs, however, are by unidentified photographers.

Oversize photographs are listed at the end of the Series and include photographs from most or all of the categories listed above. The series also includes photo albums and photographic slides of various subjects (identified in the box and folder list) as well as negatives (largely unidentified). The same subject may appear in different formats (for example, camp photos will be found in loose photographs, photo albums, oversize photographs, and photographic slides), so in order to locate all the relevant visual material, researchers should search or browse the entire box and folder list for Series VII.

Photographs that were exhibited at BCNY have been unframed and are housed together as "Display photos" (Box 115, Folders 3-8).

Note that some photographs have numbers on the back preceded by "BD", "CP", or "HP"; captions for these photographs will be found in Box 115.