Our Streets, Our Stories: Personal Histories of Brooklyn
Jake Gibson
[Elaine Clark, Robert Clark and Roseanne Clark outside Marcy Houses], 1952, Photographic print, OSOS_0610; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Roseanne Clark White at Boys and Girls High School.
How do you represent the history of a community? Through its people? Memories? Artifacts? In 2014, Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Collection – now the Center for Brooklyn History – wrestled with these questions as it sought to preserve Brooklyn’s endlessly diverse and complex history.
Through Our Streets, Our Stories, we hosted scanning events at 15 library branches and community hubs across Brooklyn, inviting our patrons to bring in items to be digitized. Instead of keeping the physical items, we followed a post-custodial model of collecting, creating a digital copy that we could return to the owner and add to our digital collections.
The aim of Our Streets, Our Stories is both forward and backward-looking. By scanning material, we want to preserve cultural heritage that often remains tucked away in apartments, basements, and attics across the city. But more importantly, we want our community to be active participants in shaping present and future understanding of Brooklyn’s history. By contributing and sharing materials, people choose how their neighborhood will be represented and remembered.
More than almost any other collection at the Center for Brooklyn History, Our Streets, Our Stories represent the diverse and wide-ranging history of our borough.
Dive into the Collection
Our Streets Our Stories currently has more than 600 digitized items (with more to come!) that date back to the late 1800s. Here are types of items you’re likely to find in the collection:
Family Memories
Family gathering. Three women, a girl and dog in a backyard patio, 1991, Photographic print, OSOS_0153; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Erika Andino at Clinton Hill library.[Miriam Diallo, Oumar Ly, and children at a birthday party], 1998, OSOS_0719; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Mariam Diallo at Boys and Girls High School.
[Piccione family dinner], [between 1940 and 1945], Photographic print, OSOS_0204; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Kaitlin Holt at Central Library.
Community Events and Gatherings
Little League opening day parade, 1979, Photographic print, OSOS_0519; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Elayne Archer at Park Slope Library. Mothers and Daughters of the Marcy Houses gather on Marcy Day], 2010, Photographic print, OSOS_0702; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Linda Burke Galloway at Boys and Girls High School. [Kimati Dinizulu, Stan Kinard, Chief Bey, Max Roach, unidentified, and Baba Kwame Ishangi], [not after 2003], Photographic print, OSOS_0546; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Stanley Kinard at Boys and Girls High School.
Images on Brooklyn
Elevated train at 105th street station in Canarsie, [between 1930 and 1959?], Slide, OSOS_0232; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Steven Kaye at the Jamaica Bay Library.
Corner of Ainslie and Leonard Streets, [1930?], Photographic print, OSOS_0013; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Vera Toscano at the Leonard Library.Shadows on stairs, [between 2010 and 2011?], Photographic print, OSOS_0428; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Carol Sanjour at Park Slope Library.
Major Life Events
Telegram sending congratulations on a birth, 1962, OSOS_0577; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Carol Sanjour at Park Slope Library.
Bride and groom posing with wedding party, [between 1940 and 1949], OSOS_0679; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Linda Burke Galloway at Boys and Girls High School.[Memorial Card for Rev. Richard A. Kennedy], 1942, OSOS_0469; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Sheila Gallagher-Tierney at Dyker Library.
Memorabilia
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks commemorative patch, [after 2001],OSOS_0628; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by the Richard family at Boys and Girls High School.
Matchbook from Munster Bar, Park Slope, Brooklyn, N.Y, [between 1960 and 1983?], OSOS_0160; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Michael Schwartz at Saint Saviour Catholic Academy.
Portraits through the Ages
Studio portrait of boy in sailor suit and girl in lace dress, 1918, OSOS_0467; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Sheila Gallagher-Tierney at Dyker Library. [Framed wedding portrait of Agnes Cappobianco], [1928?], OSOS_0542; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Robert Iannuzzi at Green-Wood Cemetery.
[School portrait of Eric Osorio], 1972, OSOS_0252; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Eric Osorio at Red Hook Library. [Second grade class portrait], 1988, OSOS_0527; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Elayne Archer at Park Slope Library. Portrait of Stanley Kinard, [2002?], OSOS_0569; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Stanley Kinard at Boys and Girls High School.
Want to Share your Own History of Brooklyn?
While the collection stage of Our Streets, Our Stories is over, the Center for Brooklyn History still has ways for you to share your personal history in the borough.
Running through the end of 2025, “Brooklyn Is…” is a multimedia exhibition at the Center for Brooklyn History that explores the neighborhoods and people of Brooklyn, inviting us to reflect on our borough’s endless complexity. As a part of the exhibition, we’re projecting images from our community on the wall of our Great Hall and sharing them online.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
Post a Comment
While BPL encourages an open forum, posts and comments are moderated by library staff. BPL reserves the right, within its sole discretion, not to post and to remove submissions or comments that are unlawful or violate this policy. While comments will not be edited by BPL personnel, a comment may be deleted if it violates our comment policy.
Get the latest updates from BPL and be the first to know about new programs, author talks, exciting events and opportunities to support your local library.
