Over 34,000 items from the reference collection of The New York Public Library's Picture Collection selected from a broad selection of the most requested image subject categories, including Costume, American history, New York City, Design and others.The reference, or non-circulating, portion of the Picture Collection comprises about one-fifth of the division's holdings of approximately two million images. Consisting mostly of images produced in the early twentieth century and before, the reference collection complements the division's primary circulating image holdings and is organized into the same 12,000 subject categories as the main collection.
Since its creation in 1915, the Picture Collection has met the needs of New York's large community of artists, illustrators, set and costume designers, educators, students, and general researchers. Covering over 12,000 subjects, the Picture Collection is an extensive circulating collection and reference archive, the largest of its kind in any public library system.
