Collection: Streetscapes & Subways: Photographs By Pierre P. And Granville W. Pullis

New York Transit Museum

Through January 17, 2021

As New York’s subway system was being planned at the turn of the 20th century, transit officials did what any large construction company would do today: hired an official photographer to take survey photographs and provide precise documentation of an area prior to—and during—construction.

Streetscapes & Subways: Photographs by Pierre P. and Granville W. Pullis provides a rare view of the last days of “old New York” through the lenses of two of the earliest photographers of subway construction. The photographs transcend their original purpose, showing New York changing on a daily basis as a result of the subway and revealing architectural and cultural details of a city that would otherwise be long forgotten.