We’re excited to launch our latest project, Queens: Neighborhood Stories, in partnership with Queens Library and with support from Metropolitan New York Library Council.  

Queens, NYC is the most diverse county in the U.S., with many different cultures and many different neighborhoods. We want to capture this rich tapestry and are inviting everyone in Queens to share photos, video clips, audio recordings, stories and memories to tell the unique histories of their neighborhoods.

Queens Library will be supporting libraries and local organizations to run community activities in their own neighborhoods, from scanning family photos to solving photo mysteries. Kicking off our community activities we have:

• • Court Square Community Library, Long Island City is running a scanning session for the local community to have their materials digitised
  • Bayside Historical Society working with Queens Library volunteers to digitise records for the centenary of “Bayside Day”.
  • Public History students at St John’s University tracing the history of QueensWay

How can you get involved?

Share material from your collections
If you’ve got personal or institutional collections, visit https://www.historypin.org/en/queens/to add photos, videos, audio clips and stories to the map.

Gather photos and stories from your community – Run a session with your community to collect local photos and stories to add to the communal archive. Download our free resource pack which has ideas to get started with and materials to use.

Solve photo mysteries with your community – Run a session with your community to help identify the places, people and events depicted in photographs that lack contextual information. Download our free resource pack which has ideas to get started with and materials to use.

Explore the project
Lots of material has been shared already, so visit https://www.historypin.org/en/queens/ to dive in and add your stories and memories to what’s been pinned.

If you are interested in running activities in your neighborhood and would like more information, email Natalie Milbrodt (Director Queens Memory Project, Queens Library) on Natalie.Milbrodt@queenslibrary.org