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Special Collections
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NEW! People of A Thousand Towns Photo Catalog
A new, Internet edition of YIVO's People Of A Thousand Towns, consisting of 17,000 photographs of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, is now available at
http://yivo1000towns.cjh.org. Drawn from the large photographic collections of the YIVO Archives, the photos document Jewish life in large Jewish centers as well as many smaller towns and villages from the late nineteenth century to the early 1940s.
There are photographs scattered throughout the collections of the YIVO Archive, but a sizable proportion of them—some 150,000—are held by the Photographic Archive in specific photographic collections. The Photographic Archive is frequently consulted by publishers, filmmakers, exhibition curators, and other researchers and constitutes one of the most significant Jewish photographic collections in the world.
The Photographic Archive collects ordinary family photographs, as well
as the work of acclaimed photographers. The images span many different
topics and time periods relating to Jewish history and culture around
the world, but are particularly notable in the following four subject
areas: Jewish life in Eastern Europe; American
Jewish immigration history; Yiddish theater;
and the Holocaust.
Photo requests and inquiries must first be submitted in writing via email to the Assistant Photo & Film Archivist, Jesse Aaron Cohen, or to: YIVO Archives, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011-6301. If you have already submitted your request in writing and wish to speak to the Photo & Film Archivist, please call (917) 606-8291.
YIVO is particularly well-known for its collection of photographs of Jewish life in Eastern Europe before World War II. Most of these photographs are to be found in the Territorial Photographic Collection (RG 120), over 49 linear feet of photographs of Jewish life around the world. The bulk of this collection is made up of images of Jewish life in Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.
About 17,000 of these pictures can be viewed on "People of A Thousand Towns," an online catalog, now online at http://yivo1000towns.cjh.org.
Also on "People of A Thousand Towns" are photographs from several other prewar collections, including the records of the Lithuanian Jewish Communities, 1844-1940 (RG 2) and the Joseph A. Rosen Papers, 1921-1938 (RG 358). Rosen was an official of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). His papers contain hundreds of photographs of Jewish agricultural settlements, institutions, schools, factories, and medical centers which were supported by the JDC in the USSR.
Click here to view an online gallery
of photographs of Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
Photographs and other items from the YIVO Archives are featured in Swarthmore College's online exhibition: Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland.
The Photo Archive is a particularly rich resource of images related to the American Jewish immigrant experience. These pictures, scattered across several different collections, depict a wide range of subjects, including immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, studio portraits of American Jewish families and of prominent individuals, Yiddish theater performances, the activities of Jewish educational and social welfare organizations, trade union and political events, synagogues, and Jewish neighborhoods.
Significant collections of photographs related to American Jewish history include:
The Photo Archives holds about 10,000 images of the Holocaust and related subjects. These pictures, scattered across several different collections, have been cataloged on a computer database, HOLOPIX, which can be consulted by appointment with the Photo & Film Archivist, Krysia Fisher.
Topics depicted by the Holocaust photographs include:
Click here to view an online gallery
of Holocaust photographs.
YIVO is one of the world's preeminent sources of photographs relating to the history of Yiddish theater. Many of these photographs have been cataloged on a computer database, STAGEPIX, which can be consulted by appointment with the Photo & Film Archivist, Krysia Fisher.
Significant Yiddish theater photo collections include:
The Photo Archive holds many portraits and more candid photographs of individuals noted for their contributions to Jewish life, including writers, scholars, historians, scientists, philosophers, community leaders, rabbinical figures, political leaders, musicians, and cantors. Many of these pictures can be found in the following collections:
Mass-produced picture postcards can be found in many YIVO Archives collections. The Archives, however, maintains a special collection devoted to this type of artifact, Postcards and Greeting Cards, 1910s-1960s (RG 122). Included in this collection are rare postcards with art reproductions, photographic images, and poetic texts; and cards depicting folklore and religious themes, such as the Jewish New Year. The postcards are cataloged on a computer database.
The YIVO Slide Bank is a division of the Photographic Archive. The Slide Bank consists of slide reproductions of images from books and original photographs from the YIVO Library and Archives, accessible through a card catalog. Slides (up to 50 at a time) may be rented for four weeks for a fee of $25.00. Links to Online Jewish Photo Collections
People of a Thousand Towns: The Online Catalog of Photographs of Jewish Life in Prewar Eastern Europe
Israel Government Press Office - National Photo Collection
Jewish Women's Archive
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Witness to Jewish History CAPTION FOR IMAGE AT TOP OF PAGE:
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