Dig deep into the city’s history at History101.nyc

New York City is a place that’s constantly reinventing itself. But understanding the past is critical for moving forward. And it’s one of the reasons History101.nyc exists. Website founders Joseph Gornail and Steven Garcia created History 101 as a way of sharing their passion for the city’s history with others when they realized how many people aren’t aware of the city’s rich history, including those living within the five boroughs. The project is dedicated to exploring New York’s fascinating heritage through the restoration of vintage photographs and prints. “We want to educate people on NYC’s fascinating past by exploring the natural forces that shaped the environment and landscape, along with the people who would transform the ‘Island of Many Hills’ into the greatest and most influential city in the world,” explained Joseph. On the website, visitors can browse through image sets of the city’s history, starting from the 1600s all the way through 1990. You can also step into a virtual time machine and see New York City’s favorite landmarks, like the Brooklyn Bridge, Union Square, and even the subway, as they developed over the years. It’s a collection that’s incredible to click through and appealing to everyone from someone casually interested in the city to major history buffs. In fact, much of the collection isn’t available anywhere besides History101.nyc. “We have many exclusive rights on pictures and images that represent the History of NYC,” said Joseph. While History101.nyc is an ad-free learning resource that’s available to the public at no charge, the duo have plans to expand what they do even further and help young people interact and learn about the city in an interactive way. “We want to develop a curriculum that we can send to all schools, especially New York City public schools, for field trips, where students can take pictures of locations that match our collection of vintage images. This would provide a hands-on resource for educators to help students discover and interact with the city’s history." We love that the founders have taken on this project of preserving our city’s history for the masses and that they’ve chosen to do it on a .nyc website. Using a .nyc top-level domain instead of something like .com mean that visitors new to the site instantly know what kind of history they’re going to find. And for a site that’s dedicated to appreciating and preserving the city, there’s no better way of showing a connection than by having the city right in the web address. As for the future of History101, Joseph and Steven intend on keeping it the same as it’s aways been. “We continue to restore thousands of images documented in our archive, along with hosting, server, and administrative costs of keeping this ad-free resource up and running at no charge to the public,” said Joseph. So if you’ve ever been curious about learning more about the city’s past and watching1 it change before your eyes, head to History101.nyc!