Special Collections - Lloyd Sealy Library: Digital Special Collections

The Lloyd Sealy Library Digital Collections feature hundreds of items from our unique Special Collections, including:

• Justice in New York: An Oral History — interviews with major figures in New York City's history of criminal justice
• Burton B. Turkus Papers — mug shots, rap sheets, and crime scene photos from 1940s Brooklyn selected from this collection
• Lewis E. Lawes Papers — prisoner mug shots and photos of Sing Sing prison, 1920–1941, selected from this collection
• Images from NYPD Annual Reports — NYPD history from 1912-23, Images are taken from NYPD Annual Reports in our collections which have been digitized and uploaded to the Internet Archives.
• John Jay College of Criminal Justice Archives — Selected documents, photographs and news clippings - we also have a digital exhibit on 50 years of John Jay College history
• Detective Eugene Canevari Papers - Selected images and documents collected during 25 years (1927–1952) of NYPD investigative work.
• Records of the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) - Selections from the Records of the IAWP which is celebrating its centennial in 2015.

Other John Jay College Special Collections digitally available:

• John Jay Library on the Internet Archive: hundreds of digitized books from our Special Collections and Circulating collections
• Criminal Trial Transcripts of NY County 1883-1927 includes an index to our Criminal Trial Transcripts Collection, a selection from which is available digitally

Digitization Projects

• The Special Collections has completed several successful digitization projects funded by METRO, and other sources including:
  • Crime in New York 1850-1950 digitization project (2006-2007)
  • Digitizing Policing: Opening Access to Law Enforcement Resources digitization project (2016), which included digitization of:
    • Law Enforcement News (1975-2005)

The New-York Historical Society N-YHS Digtial Collections include online collections related to their exhibits as well as a growing number of images and documents from their collections on the history of NYC.

The New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections includes over 800,000 of images and other objects scanned from NYPL's vast collections, which include hundresds of maps. There are collection guides that feature hightlights of the collections.

Brooklyn Visual Heritage includes hundreds of 19th- and 20th-century photos from Brooklyn's diverse history.

Brooklyn Newsstand features the full print run of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1855-1941. The searchable collection is a good resource for local, state, and national news.

Digital METRO NY is a directory of digital projects completed by METRO members in the NYC area.

The New York State Archives, Library and Museum share a catalog which can be restricted to electronic documents only They also have a digital image library you can also search or browse images from all three institutions.   State library electronic documents which are digitally available  can be browsed or searched here

Cornell University - Trial Pamphlets Collection  Contemporary accounts of trials from the 1600s to 1800s

The FBI Vault - Electronic Reading Room includes hundreds of FBI files requested by FOIL requests or made publically available for other reasons. You can browse by FBI categories such as Gangs and Extremist Groups Counter-Terrorism, Gangster Era Violent Crime and Unexplained Phenomenon

The American Memory Project provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.The digitized collections are mostly held by the Library of Congress, 23 other institutions have also contributed content to this resource. Search or browse this vast collection for primary materials on American History. There is also a the Digital Rare Books and Special Collections at the Library of Congress

Smithsonian Institution Digital Collections Search over 6.4 million records with 536,000 images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from the Smithsonian's museums, archives & libraries. Click online results only for digitially available materials.  Read the blog The Bigger Picture for the latest digital images available. Check also at the Smithsonian Institution's Photostream on  The Flickr Commons

The National Archives (NARA) Digital Vaults web site is  a portal into the heart of the US National Archives, and can be reached from the home page of the National Archives Experience. This new site uses visual records such as documents, photographs, and popular media, and illustrates how these materials can come together.  NARA also has several online exhibits, presents a document of the day links to digital copies of America's Historic Documents and you can search the ARC catalog with the option of restricting your search to documents available as digital copies. The New York office of the NARA is at 121 Varick Street