UK based photo agency Eyevine are ‘live/auto updating‘ images from the New York Times Historical Archive ( NYTHA is also a keyword )
Eyevine say: “How many images are there? We don’t know. The best guess is five million to six million prints and contact sheets and 300,000 sacks of negatives, ranging in format size from 35mm to 5 by 7 inches — at least 10 million frames in all. The picture archive also includes 13,500 DVDs, each storing about 4.7 gigabytes worth of imagery. When the Museum of Modern Art set out to exhibit the highlights of the Times archive in 1996, it dispatched four curators. They spent nine months poring over 3,000 subjects, working with two Times editors, one of whom spent a year on the project. In the end, they estimated that they’d seen only one-quarter of the total.”
“If the New York Times posts 10 new archival pictures every weekday on Tumblr, just from their print collection, they wouldn’t have the whole thing online until the year 3935. That’s a bit too ambitious. Instead, they’ll gradually digitize at least the tip of the iceberg of this enormous trove, guaranteeing its continued utility and accessibility in the future.”
“We’re eager to share historical riches that have been locked away from public view. We hope you’ll enjoy the serendipity of discovery, that you’ll know something of the thrill we feel when we unlock the door of the morgue and walk into a treasure house made of filing cabinets, index cards, manila folders and more 8-by-10s than anyone can count.”