Bronx River Parkway Albums

Dates: 1912-1924
Quantity: 22 photograph albums
Arrangement: Unarranged.
Indexed: Available online.
Format: 8x10 black and white prints on album pages with typed notecards.

The Bronx Parkway Commission Photograph Albums primarily document conditions that existed along the Bronx River before construction of the Bronx River Parkway in the nineteen-teens and early 1920s. Gathered into twenty-two photographic albums by the Bronx Parkway Commission, many of the images in this collection are also part of the Archives’ larger Bronx River Parkway photograph collection (not yet available online). Some of the images in the albums are specifically identified as “before” and “after” photographs of particular locations, showing the tremendous efforts made to clean up the Bronx River in the early part of the 20th century; while others are identified by their map sheet and parcel numbers. To some extent, the album number in which a photograph was included represents the map “sheet” on which the property depicted was located. This may help explain why there are twenty-two albums that are numbered 1-30, with gaps. James Owen is the photographer for many of the images in this collection.

For more information about the Bronx River Parkway, see also Series 95: Bronx Parkway Commission Annual Reports and Series 118: Bronx Parkway Commission Minutes. In addition, Series 109: Bronx Parkway Commission Land Acquisitions includes material relevant to many of the properties pictured in these photographs. Finally, Series 254: Bronx River Parkway Reservation Historic American Engineering Record has both modern and historic photographs as well as engineering drawings relating to the Parkway.

Sample Photographs:

Cars on the Bronx River Parkway, n.d. (PBP-2486)