Peter Cohen collection of New York City snapshots

The Peter Cohen Collection of New York City Snapshots contains images largely of New York City scenes, and a few of other locations, taken between 1891 and 1981 by anonymous, amateur photographers. Along with popular sites like the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park and the ubiquitous Manhattan skyline, the collection includes some uncommon street views, such as those taken outside Peter's Italian & American Restaurant at 59 Grove Street, in Greenwich Village, now the site of famed piano bar Marie's Crisis. One rare image from 1949 captures a group of women protesting the "Dividing of Ireland" outside the offices of the British Consulate General, located then in the Empire State Building. (The House of Commons had recently enacted a "New Ireland Bill," enabling the Northern Ireland Parliament to decide the status of its six counties; the demonstrators urged the United Nations to conduct a plebiscite to permit the people to vote on whether or not to join the Republic of Ireland.) Perhaps of most interest are the shots of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades from 1933, 1934, 1937, and 1940, which show the first appearances of the balloons "Mickey Mouse" (1934) and "Superman" (1940), among other less-remembered characters such as "Gulliver the Gullible" (1933) and "Morton the Nantucket Sea Monster" (1937). Also present are views of people posed on ferries or rooftops, or in various places throughout the city. A small number of images from locations beyond New York City (only a few of which are identifiable) rounds out the collection. Except for a handful in color, all the photographs in this collection are in black and white.