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Maira Liriano, manager of the New York Public Library's local history and genealogy division, said the tax photo collections are of particular interest to researchers. For example, she said, homeowners seeking to restore their historic houses often go to the Municipal Archives to get images of what the buildings looked like in the 1940s or 1980s. The same collection is also used by people doing research for film productions, family historians hoping to see what their ancestors' homes looked like, and scholars trying to measure the transformation of the metropolis over time. One popular cache includes photos shot mostly by NYPD detectives, nearly each one a crime mystery just begging to be solved. The black-and-white, top-down image of the two men in the elevator shaft is a representative example. Although it did not carry a crime scene photo, the New York Tribune reported Nov. 25, 1915, under the headline "Finding of two bodies tells tale of theft," that the bodies of a black elevator operator and a white engineer of a Manhattan building were found "battered, as though from a long fall." The news report said the two men tried to rob a company on the fifth floor of expensive silks, but died in their attempt. The elevator was found with $500 worth of silk inside, stuck between the 10th and 11th floors. Luc Sante, an author and a professor of writing and photography at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, used images from the police collection for his 1992 book "Evidence." "They're remarkable. They're brutal. But they are also very beautiful," he said. ___ Online: New York City Department of Records:
http://www.nyc.gov/records
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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