A guide to digital resources about Brooklyn and New York City History. For more comprehensive research and resources about Brooklyn, please visit the Center for Brooklyn History.
Ancestry.com
A searchable collection of billions of historical records from the USA and other countries. Get access to census and military records, birth, marriage and death records, and immigration records. Available at public computers at all Brooklyn Public Library locations.
For remote access to U.S. Federal Census records, genealogical and historical sources for more than 60 countries, Census data, slave schedules, maps, local history books and articles, and more, please visit our HeritageQuest resource.
Only in library branches
Brooklyn Newsstand
Brooklyn Newsstand is a collection of digitized Brooklyn newspapers made possible through a partnership between Brooklyn Public Library and Newspapers.com.
Brooklyn Newsstand (2,402,000 digitized pages) contains 44 newspaper titles-including the full run of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper (1841-1963) and Brooklyn Life (1890-1931), a Brooklyn Society Magazine. Learn more about the history of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
View the full list of newspapers and their date ranges.
This site is best viewed using Chrome or Safari.
Free & accessible anywhere
Brooklyn Public Library Digital Collections
Discover Brooklyn history: Explore our collection of digitized Brooklyn content.
Free & accessible anywhere
Fire Insurance Maps Online (FIMO)
New York State high-definition, full-color fire insurance maps from Sanborn and other publishers, real estate atlases, plat books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information. The site has an Interactive map search, and Geo-referenced or search by place name and drop-down menus.
Library card required
HeritageQuest
Genealogical tool that includes U.S. Federal Census records, genealogical and historical sources for more than 60 countries, Census data, slave schedules, maps, local history books and articles, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant application files, and the Freedman's Bank Records 1865-1874.
Library card required
New York Heritage Digital Collections
Search and browse digital collections about New York State's extensive history. Includes letters, diaries, photographs, newspapers, and maps from over 160 museums, libraries and archives.
Free & accessible anywhere
New York Times (1851-2007) with Index (1851-1993)
PDFs of articles include original layout, images, and advertisements. Limit searches by topic, article title, date, and more.
Library card required
New York Times Digital Microfilm
Browse 2008 - present issues of the New York Times by date and page number or search for articles by keyword. Includes high-quality replications of photos, graphs, and tables. (Please note that present coverage will be one month behind due to a publisher embargo period.)
Library card required
Urban Archive
View a collection of city stories and check out the platform of digital collections of New York City's museums, archives, and libraries.
Free & accessible anywhere