From the Tavern on the Green in 1934 to the famous Cavanaugh's Restaurant on West 23rd in 1938 to an old dining shack in Sheepshead Bay in 1953—click through for a look at where New Yorkers used to eat back in the day. The captions (along with the photographs) are all courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives, who just released nearly one million photos online. Now if only there were a million hours in a day or the NYPL Old Menus crew could combine forces with the Municipal Archives and fully piece together these old spots for us. more ›

73 years ago today, the World's Fair (1939 edition) had its grand opening with a whopping 206,000 people in attendance. more ›

We came across this photo in the New York Public Library's digital archive, and were kind of stunned it was taken in New York City... Staten Island, to be exact. But precious little information is available about this place. The library's caption simply reads: "May's—view of building, patio with umbrella tables, dance hall entrance, sign advertising May's Hotel Bar and Grill." more ›

Arthur Fellig, aka Weegee, collaborated with Stanley Kubrick when the two were both struggling photographers in the city. Weegee's work from his time behind the lens is being celebrated this year, but where's the love for Kubrick's photos? Back in the 1940s he was a staff photographer for LOOK Magazine, and yesterday the Museum of the City of New York Tweeted a link to photos of Kubrick's photographs capturing New York City’s subway commuters. more ›

The New York City Municipal Archives has gone digital, expanding their online archives—starting today you can access 870,000 (and counting) of their old photographs, which date back to the mid-1800s. The online feature (which took them four years to get together) also provides free and open research access to their holdings, which not only include photographs, but maps, motion-pictures and audio recordings, as well. This is the first time their offerings are available online, and one and all are welcome to rummage through them. more ›

Yesterday we checked out the New York Public Library's microfilm room to find some old articles not available online regarding the Etan Patz case. The 6-year-old was kidnapped 33 years ago, and yesterday the FBI and NYPD set up a new crime scene on Prince Street, where the Patz family still lives. You can catch up on the ongoing story right here, but right now we'll look back at how the case was handled and reported in the late '70s. more ›

Fiorucci, a fashion label founded by Elio Fiorucci in 1967, became popular amongst New Yorkers (and trendsetters like Madonna and Andy Warhol) in the 1970s and early 1980s, after the East 59th Street store opened (right next to those squares at Bloomingdale's). The store was filled with glitter, gold, lamé, and skin tight jeans—in 1977, a year after the New York flagship opened, NY Mag ran a lengthy piece on the scene, noting, "All it took this year to achieve instant chic, day or night, at the slickest New York party or the trashiest, was a pair of $110 gold cowboy boots from Fiorucci." more ›

Last night on Mad Men, the teenage girl in Pete's driving class asks, "Didn't you hear about the sniper at the University of Texas today? Just two weeks after those nurses in Chicago... things seem so random, all of a sudden." Later, at Pete and Trudy's dinner party, the incident comes up again, when Megan says, "They said he had a brain tumor, he kept warning everyone." The sniper they're referring to is Charles Whitman, and when someone at the dinner table gets his last name wrong, Don corrects them saying, "it's Whitman" (as in Dick Whitman, Don's true identity). more ›

In last night's Mad Men a "thing" happening in Bed-Stuy was mentioned. We found out what it was... more ›

Last night on Mad Men, Harry Crane and Don Draper headed to Queens to catch The Rolling Stones at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in an effort to sign them up to record a jingle for Heinz Beans (move over Bean Ballet), with a "TimeHeinz Is On Your Side" pitch*. The two even explore the borough a little, with a stop at the Queens Boulevard White Castle! We won't include any real spoilers here—instead, let's look back at the stadium and the concert. When we check out some photos from 1966, the year that Don Draper & Co. are currently living in, we saw a photo of this Rolling Stones concert, which happened in real life on July 2nd, 1966. more ›

Ben Dova (womp womp) came to the States as a young man, with an interest in vaudeville and acrobats, eventually becoming well known for his signature "convivial inebriate" act. In 1933 he brought his "quirky drunkard" act to the city's skyscrapers, where he staggered about on top of the 56-story Chanin Building, located at 122 East 42nd Street, at the corner of Lexington Avenue. There were no nets, no wires, and no camera tricks involved in what you see here. According to lore, audiences were so terrified for Dova's safety, "fainting at the sight of the newsreel was documented." more ›

So maybe Peggy Olson didn't hit a homerun with her Bean Ballet idea for Heinz in last night's premiere of Mad Men, but in comparison to the real commercials airing in 1966, was it really that bad? Check out commercials that aired that year below, including many for food products, and one for Heinz Beans—Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's potential client. more ›

Table d'hôte is a French phrase meaning "host's table," and starting back in the late 1800s certain New Yorkers would dine this way. Here's what it meant: multi-course meals (with few choices) at a fixed price. Recently the NYPL's old menu project pointed us to this look-back at the time this type of dining was in fashion with the Bohemian set in New York City. more ›

This photo was taken just three years after the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, on October 9th, 1914—aka Fire Prevention Day, aka Clean Up Day! According to a New York Times article published a few days before this photo was taken, "Fire Commissioner Adamson has prepared a programme, including a parade, special fire drills, moving pictures and other features. In the morning sixteen pieces of apparatus will proceed from Bowling Green for some distance up Broadway, the parade breaking up into smaller divisions when it reaches congested centres." more ›

In 1929 a NYC-based writer visited a penthouse for sale in Manhattan after hearing these dwellings were all the rage. Originally he believed penthouses were nothing more than "a little shack on a dingy roof," until visiting one himself. more ›