Scholars refer to the physical objects that a society produces as elements of its material culture. They consider those objects of material culture intended to serve the purpose of visual communication as components of that society's visual culture. Photographs are such artifacts.

The photographic images and objects in this selection, from the collection of the Staten Island Museum, thus constitute a cross-section of Staten Island's material culture and its visual culture as well.

With Staten Island now the fastest-growing borough in New York City, and the fastest-growing county in New York State, the island's past, as recorded in these pictures, has never been more rele Historians, critics, and curators of photography have come to use the term "vernacular photography" to describe everything from amateur snapshots to photo-booth images to commercial studio portraits to newspaper photographs. Admittedly, it's a catch-all for that vast welter of photographic images and objects that don't fall easily into the categories of fine art, documentary, photojournalism, scientific/medical imagery, and other specific usages of the medium.

The images in this selection would all fit into that classification. This does not devalue them in any way. They constitute a mother lode of visual history that we have only begin to mine. - A. D. Coleman

Please click on the image on the left to view the online selection of images.

If you'd like to conduct research in the History Archives & Library at the Staten Island Museum, please contact our Archivist/Researcher, Cara Dellatte to make an appointment: (718) 483-7122 or cdellatte@statenislandmuseum.org


The cataloging, digitizing and text for the images on these web pages is made possible in part through funding from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).