Brooklyn Bridge (1912) via Brooklyn Public Library

Urban Archive’s Year in Review

Here’s what happened in 2020…

It’s no secret that 2020 has been a challenging year for us all. But despite everything, Urban Archive users came together in powerful ways!

In a year marked by uncertainty and loss, our partners and community taught us important lessons, reflected on the past with the present, and provided comfort throughout the pandemic, as well as creating downright awesome and funny stories for folks to enjoy at home.

Today, we’re looking back at some of those conversations, wins, and big moments. Scroll down for the best of Urban Archive in 2020 in this year in review!

Urban Archive By The Numbers 📈

• 229,089 users — up 422% year over year (YoY)
• 103,220 images mapped — up 13% YoY
• 780 stories — up 56% YoY
• 116 partners — up 66% YoY
• 4 cities — up 33% YoY

Most Popular Content 🔥

• Roosevelt Avenue between 51st Street & Tieman Avenue via New York Transit Museum
• Epidemic: New York in 1918 via the Municipal Arts Society
• Starlight Amusement Park via Urban Archive

New Milestones ✔️

• Urban Archive won two awards! One from the American Alliance for Museums for our Historic NYC campaign, and another from The Webby’s as the best arts and culture app.
• Our team launched Urban Archive for Education, rolling out over 156 stories, curriculum guides, and lesson plans over the course aimed at aiding teachers as they engage students in local history through archival collections.
• Our sustainability grew as we worked with our partners to fundraise for the development of new features and tools that expand access to historical collections.

Partner Projects We’re Proud Of 👊

• We helped the Municipal Art Society of New York reimagine their annual Jane’s Walk festival as part of our New York From Home campaign, bringing together over thirty NYC institutions to tell the story of the five boroughs online.
• Urban Archive is powering the Queens Memory COVID-19 Project, an initiative that enables residents of the borough of Queens to document and preserve their own histories as they navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.
• We teamed up with Village Preservation to highlight the incredible concentration of history in the blocks below Union Square, amplifying the call for the area’s preservation through the development of new tools like Urban Archive in 3D and a series of virtual tours.

Fancy New Tech ✨

• We introduced some sweet data cleaning tools and made it possible for partners to edit and curate their collections directly in-app. Full list of new features here!
• Urban Archive got a refresh. We made our web app more responsive and optimized the experience for users browsing on the web and mobile.
• We brought new information to the map such as Today in History and data about every building in New York City.

Other Great Stuff 💪

• We experimented with Lot Talks, Q&Archives, and New Collection Alerts — all different ways to bring our partners and community together around archives and local history.
• Folks from our newly-launched community tuned in weekly for conversations around archives and open data and blew us away with all of their amazing stories!
• We brought on tons of new partners and niche photos (think: high-diver Tom J. Quincy “hitting the water” in 1918), and started filling in the map of Albany NY with the help of our friends at Picturing Urban Renewal!

What’s Next 👀

• We’re expanding to Ogden, Utah to explore the history of the transcontinental railroad with our new friends at the Museums at Union Station.
• Pretty soon, Urban Archive will be able to support new media types (hint: oral histories, guided tours, and historic soundscapes).
• We’re gearing up to unlock user accounts, making it possible for anyone to submit their photos to Urban Archive and share their stories with our community. We know you’re interested in beta-testing so shoot us an email at team@urbanarchive.nyc to get the details!

Men embracing via Brooklyn Public Library

THANKS! 🙏

As always, thanks to everyone who has cheered us on at Urban Archive! We can’t wait to see what the next year brings. Thanks for your help in making our work, platform, and community awesome.