Conserving, Digitizing, and Creating Access to the J. Clarence Davies Collection of Art

FAIN: PW-50861-11

Museum of the City of New York, Inc. (New York, NY 10029-5221)
Sarah M. Henry (Project Director: July 2010 to April 2014)

Digitization, selective conservation, and creation of online access to 1,578 paintings, drawings, and prints documenting the history of the city of New York from the 17th through the 20th century.

The Museum of the City of New York seeks a $222,370 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a two-year $538,424 project to (1) provide conservation treatment for 18 selected paintings and 160 drawings, prints, and similar non-photographic visual documentary materials in the J. Clarence Davies Collection, depicting the five boroughs of the City of New York, ca. 1626-1932, and (2) to digitize the conserved items plus approximately 1,400 additional Davies Collection works, enhance their metadata, and deliver them via the Museum's soon-to-launch Internet-accessible collection database for use by the public, scholars, and all those who are interested in researching the visual history of New York City. The J. Clarence Davies Collection of New York City iconography and printed history is one of the Museum's foundational collections and has been in constant use both within and without the Museum since its arrival in 1929.