Library Page - Stephen A. Schwarzman Building / Picture Collection

OverviewEstablished in 1987 thanks to a gift from the Wallach family, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs unites what had formerly been five separate departments under a single banner. Divisional holdings comprise works of art as well as reference materials on painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, and the history of architecture from prehistoric times to the present.Founded in 1915 as a resource for visual researchers, The New York Public Library’s Picture Collection provides 1.5 million circulating images clipped from books and magazines across 12,000 subject headings, from clothing and dress to military battles to insects. The collection also features extensive holdings of vintage postcards and greeting cards, and around 150,000 non-circulating reference images from the early 1900s and prior. The Picture Collection’s unique arrangement of items by subject makes it useful to researchers in many creative fields, including artists; doc