Tax Photos

If you live in New York City, and haven't already, you need to order a copy of your building's tax photograph from the New York City Municipal Archives. Sometime in the 1930s, the city photographed every single building in the city for tax purposes, and thirty bucks gets you an 8x10--an additional five if you don't know your block and lot number. I just got a photo of my Brooklyn tenement home; its vacant first-floor shops (now apartments) are poignant and beautiful.

Even if you don't live in New York, you must check out the Battle Creek, Michigan Public Library's website--where they've posted ALL of their city's c. 1940 tax photographs online. It's a staggeringly wonderful public service. The photographs are organized by street, which means that you can click up and down the roads of Depression-era Michigan. Closest thing I know to time travel--they're like Walker Evans photographs without the artistry. Like 39 Rockford Drive for example.