You know those guys. They scour the vintage shops, shuffling through piles of old photographs, and fish deep in their great grandparents’ trunks for ancient, fragile sheets of metal. By luck, good fortune, or advanced, time-consuming quests, they dig up gems like this photo of a swimming team in Coney Island, looking regal in stripes. Or that one, from the turn-of-the-century Bronx, crusting over with rust and other chemical misfortunes, smiling through the centuries. Please take our kudos, collectors, for every found photo you’ve lovingly uploaded to the Internet and made our picture of New York just that more complete and charming. Oh my god. Those hats! Check out a few tintypes in our gallery and be sure to visit their Flickr pages for even more vintage photo goodness.
Mammoth Photograph Gallery, Surf Avenue, Opposite Sea Beach, Coney Island, New York. Image credit: Tony Alter/Flickr
Brooklyn New York, 1880. Image credit: Richard Boyle/Flickr
The Bronx, New York City, about 1900. Image credit: Jim Griffin/Flickr
“Balmers” at the Great Atlantic Swimming Baths at Coney Island. Image credit: Woolfgang Wiggers/Flickr
The Bronx, New York City, 1906. Image credit: Jim Griffin/Flickr
“ix Well Dressed Men With Hats.” Image credit: Danny Higgins/Flickr
“Mammoth Photograph Gallery, Surf Avenue, Opposite Sea Beach, Coney Island, New York.” 1899. Image credit: Tony Alter/Flickr
New York State. Image credit: Danny Higgins/Flickr
Coney Island. Image credit: Tony Alter/Flickr
“Wife of Horace Poinier. Mayor of Newark, NJ. Taken in New York, 1854.” This is sixth-plate ambrotype. Image credit: James/Flickr