Introduction
This guide is intended to help researchers who cannot visit the Center for Brooklyn History in person. If you still have questions, please email library and collections staff at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org. We’re here to help!
- CBH Collections Accessible Online
The following resources are digitally available. While we are merging the Brooklyn Public Library's and the former Brooklyn Historical Society's collections, some resources are temporarily available through two portals. For digital reproductions, contact us at digitalcollections@bklynlibrary.org. For questions, contact us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.
Archives
While the archival collections are not digitally available, the online finding aids (guides) often contain helpful contextual information about people, places, and businesses. In the finding aids, click "Access Points" in the left hand menu pane to find subject names, topics, organizations, and other related search terms that may support your research.
Art & Artifacts
A small portion of our art and artifacts collection has been digitized and is publicly available.
Book catalog
On occasion, a book in the CBH collection is availble as an e-book in the general Brooklyn Public Library system. Adjust the filters in the catalog's right hand menu pane to search formats outside of e-books, or to focus on the CBH collection exclusively. Titles may also be found outside the system through Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and its OpenLibrary, the Hathitrust, Google Books and similar sites.
Brooklynology blog
Fascinating Brooklyn stories on a wide range of topics from the Center for Brooklyn History's librarians and archivists. Search blog topics in the Brooklyn Public Library's site search.
Directories
Many city and telephone directories have been digitized. Additional directories are available at CBH or the Central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system (10 Grand Army Plaza).
Film, Video, and Audio recordings
Explore our digitized film, audio, and video recordings through the Internet Archive.
Map Collections
Digitized maps are available through two portals: The maps portal and the digital collections portal.
Fire Insurance Maps Online
New York State high-definition, full-color fire insurance maps from Sanborn and other publishers, real estate atlases, plat books, and other historical maps. The site has an Interactive map search, and Geo-referenced or search by place name and drop-down menus. A Brooklyn Public Library card is required.
Newspapers
Brooklyn Newsstand - Search 44 newspaper titles, including the full run of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper (1841-1963) and Brooklyn Life (1890-1931), a Brooklyn Society Magazine.
Brooklyn High School newspapers - School news receives the most attention in the papers, but community events, as well as matters of national and international interest, are reported on as well. The bulk of the papers in the collection span the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s.
Oral Histories
The majority of the Center for Brooklyn History's oral histories are available online. The bulk of the recordings are accessible through the oral history portal (~1,200 interviews). Recordings produced under the Brooklyn Public Library's Our Streets, Our Stories project are accesible through the oral history map (~280 interviews). through two portals: the oral history portal and the digital collections portal.
Photographs and other images
A large portion of the Center for Brooklyn History's photographs, prints, illustrations, postcards, and other images are digitally available. They are accessible through the Brooklyn Public Library's digital collections portal (click the "request" or "purchase" button to acqurie a digital reproduction) and through the former Brooklyn Historical Society's image database (email us the call number to request a file at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org)
Research Guides & Tutorials
The Center for Brooklyn History has created a number of research guides — like this one. These guides on popular topics are intended to help researchers working with the CBH collections (primarily) and beyond (secondarily). Video tutorials on CBH databases and resources are also available on this page.
- Data and Reference Sources
- Infoshare Online Find demographic data by neighborhood from 1980 to present
- DOITT Map (Beware that building construction dates are often inaccurate)
- NYC Oasis
- NYC Open Data
Digitized Books
Henry Stiles’ three-volume work, A History of the City of Brooklyn: Including the Old Town and Village of Brooklyn, the Town of Bushwick, and the Village and City of Williamsburg (1867 – 1870) contains lots of detailed information about individuals, farms, businesses, streets, and more through the mid-19th century.
I.N. Phelps-Stokes’s six volume The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 is an invaluable text that includes information not just about Manhattan, but about Long Island and Brooklyn as well.
Eugene Armbruster’s The Eastern District is an excellent resource for the history of Bushwick, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint, and especially helpful in understanding street name changes.
- Available here through HathiTrust
- Digitized primary sources and online exhibitions
Center for Brooklyn History
While the Center for Brooklyn History’s manuscript and archival collections are largely undigitized, there are a few notable exceptions:
- Digitized materials used in our TeachArchives exercises
- Digitized materials from the Lefferts Family Papers
- Digitized materials from the Packer Collegiate Institute collection
- In Pursuit of Freedom online exhibition has digitized materials from our collections and from other repositories relating to the history of abolition in Brooklyn.
Outside Resources
- New York City Municipal Archives: collections include old Kings County records, the Brooklyn Bridge, Ebbets Field, Schools, and more
- New York Public Library
- Museum of the City of New York
- Library of Congress: In addition to maps and photographs, their digitized archival collections include materials relating to Frederick Law Olmstead, Walt Whitman, Leonard Bernstein and others.
- New-York Historical Society
- Family History Research
Ancestry
Usually available by subscription, but also freely available at most public libraries, this site offers fully scanned and searchable federal censuses for all years currently available (through 1940) as well as many other records. Ancestry.com is available through September 2021 here to BPL library card holders.
Brooklyn Directories, 1856 – 1967
These residential and classified directories were digitized by CBH and are available online through the Internet Archive. Early directories sometimes indicate the person’s home address with the initial “h”.
Brooklyn Genealogy Information Page
Detailed search portal for numerous resources on Brooklyn municipal history, directories, cemeteries, police and fire departments, schools, clubs etc.
Familysearch.org
This Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints genealogy website has made many genealogy records freely available.
New York City Vital Records Index
- Ancestry.com and the Municipal Archives have collaborated to make available indexes of over 10 million New York City birth, marriage, and death records (1866–1948).
- In addition, the website German Genealogy Group provides a detailed database search of numerous vital records information. Despite the name, the website is not exclusive to those of German ancestry.
Kings County Estate Files (1866-1923)
Brooklyn probate records have been digitized and made available online for the years 1866–1923.
Italian Genealogical Group
Includes many indexes, such as searchable birth, marriage, and death indexes. Not limited to those of Italian ancestry.
AfriGeneas
Genealogy website dedicated to African-related ancestry.
Ellis Garden Passenger Search
Online searchable database of all passengers that arrived at Ellis Island immigration port between 1892 and 1957.
Stephen P. Morse
One-step portal for immigration records and genealogy; birth, marriage and death indexes; Electoral District /Assembly District finder for census research.
Green-Wood Cemetery Burial Search
Created in 1838, Green-Wood Cemetery is Brooklyn’s largest and one of America’s first rural cemeteries. This online searchable database lets you find out when and where your ancestors were buried there.
National Archives Personnel Records Center
This division of the National Archives holds the personnel records for civilian and military employees who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during its tenure as a naval facility. The website explains how to request these records.
Find A Grave
Searches cemeteries and grave records from around the world
Brooklyn School Newspaper Collection
CBH has digitized numerous school newspapers and made them available on Internet Archive
- House, Property And Neighborhood History
Fire Insurance Atlases
Fire Insurance Atlases are one of CBH's most frequently-used resources. During our closure, researchers have several alternative resources:
- The FIMO (Fire Insurance Maps Online) database, available here with a BPL Library Card
- New York Public Library’s Brooklyn fire insurance atlases include many that are found in CBH's collections.
- The Library of Congress has digitized Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Brooklyn
Maps
Photographs
- Department of Finance 1940 Tax Photos from the NYC Municipal Archives
- Department of Finance 1980 Tax Photos from the NYC Municipal Archives
- 1940s.nyc provides photographs of nearly every building in NYC between 1939 and 1941. The photographs are geotagged to a map. 80s.nyc provides a similar service, though with lower quality photographs.
Building Ownership, Businesses, and Residents
- Kings County Land Conveyance Records for the years 1679 through 1885 are available through familysearch.org when you register for a free account. These are searchable by grantor or grantee name, not by location.
- Department of Finance’s ACRIS site has ownership records from 1966 to present
- Use the Department of Finance’s Digital Tax Map or the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Map to find your building’s tax block and lot number and other useful information.
- The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and other newspapers can also yield information about building owners, businesses or residents. Try searching for an address number and name in quotation marks (for example, “128 Pierrepont”).
- Fulton Street Trade Card Collection consists of 245 late 19th and early 20th century illustrated trade cards, which have been indexed by address.
Architectural and Structural Information
- Department of Buildings’ Buildings Information System provides block and lot numbers, certificates of occupancy, work orders, building violations, landmark status, etc. However, be aware that many of the scanned certificates have been incorrectly matched with the addresses; make sure to read the certificate closely to see if it is indeed related to your block and lot.
- The Real Estate Record from Columbia University provides sales, mortgage, conveyance, and other data about buildings in and around New York City from 1868 to 1922.
- New York Real Estate Brochure Collection from Columbia University consists of over 9,200 advertising brochures, floor plans, price lists, and related materials that document residential and commercial real estate development in the five boroughs of New York and outlying vicinities from the 1920s to the 1970s.
- Landmark Designation Reports: If your neighborhood is landmarked, you will find lots of helpful research on the history of the architecture and land ownership here.
- Photographs
- Newspapers
In addition to the Brooklyn Newsstand, available through the Brooklyn Public Library, the following resources provide access to digitized newspapers:
- fultonsearch.org provides free access to many Brooklyn (and other New York state) newspapers.
- The New York Public Library has made Newspapers.com fully available to cardholders.
Updated April 2026.
More research guides:
- 128 Pierrepont Street
- Agriculture
- Black History
- Brooklyn Dodgers
- Brooklyn Navy Yard
- Civil Rights
- Civil War
- Coney Island & Gravesend
- Early Long Island History
- Family History and Genealogy
- Green-Wood Cemetery
- House and Building History
- Indigenous Peoples of Long Island and New York
- Jewish History
- LGBTQ+ History
- Library Collections
- Neighborhood Change and Gentrification
- Oral Histories
- Remote Research
- The Revolutionary War in Brooklyn
- Waterfront: Business and Manufacturing
- Waterfront: Ferries