Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York (DCMNY) provides online access to digital collections that document the history of the metropolitan New York region. Because New York City has a rich and storied history that connects to so many other parts of the world, we invite contributions and participation from libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other cultural institutions regardless of where they may be located. You can learn more about how to join the DCMNY community here.

DCMNY is more than just a great public resource for scholars, researchers, and historians. It is also a place where librarians, archivists, and other digital collections professionals come together to learn and implement best practices as a community. Through DCMNY, akin to a community garden, METRO endeavors to cultivate sustainable digital spacemaking, cultural heritage resource exchange, access to collections materials from a spectrum of diverse viewpoints, and research support for individuals seeking information and resources related to Metropolitan New York’s history and unique communities. 

The collections include photographs, maps, letters, postcards, manuscripts, scrapbooks, programs from events, catalogues, memorabilia and ephemera, and more. New collections are being added on an ongoing basis, and contributors are also adding new material to existing collections. The distinctive stewardship styles and descriptive practices of each contributing institution are respected in DCMNY, moving towards the longer term goal of a more equitable mixture of perspectives in online digital culture heritage spaces.

DCMNY Membership Model

Click here to learn more about DCMNY's Membership Model categories.

DCMNY and Archipelago  

DCMNY runs on the Archipelago platform, an open source digital repository system. The development of Archipelago is being supported by the METRO, alongside a community of professional partners and open source repositories enthusiasts.