NYC Subway

If there's anything you've ever wanted to know about the history of the NYC subway system, look no further than nycsubway.org.

Collection Principles: Maintained and managed by David Pirmann, a professional Unix system administrator, the site started in 1995 as a collection of photo essays about a New York Transit Museum tour of the City Hall subway station in Manhattan. Today, the site contains over 70,000 images and includes information about the NYC subway in addition to a number of world transit systems. Material is contributed by voluteers as well as visitors to the site. Not affiliated with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York City Transit or any other transit agency, the site is "funded privately by the webmaster with voluntary contributions by individuals."

Object Characteristics: To submit an image to the site, photos must be in JPG format and in the size range of 640x480 to 1024x768. Most of the photos included on the site can be enlarged once with a mouse-click. Image subjects include subway stations, subway cars, transit maps, tokens, etc. The site also includes digitized versions of numerous articles and even a few books relating to the subway's history.

Metadata: Most of the images include a wide array of information such as image size and resolution, location details, specifics about the particular car (as applicable), photographer as well as detailed information about the actual photographic process, including camera make and model, exposure, focal length and metering mode.

Intendend Audience: A train enthusiast would likely get the most out of the site, but really anyone with any interest in the history of subway systems, transit systems or New York City would enjoy the site. The interface seems a bit clumsy to me, but the site harbors a treasure trove of information.