The Past, In Pixels

From the 8/14/05 Times' City Section: "For lovers of Old New York, these items and countless others can be found on an online archive that includes a remarkable trove of books about the city's past, from a 1903 account of the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge to a 1918 history of Brooks Brothers. The titles alone captivate: "Nooks and Corners of Old New York" (1899). "Behind the Scenes in Candy Factories" (1928). "Memoirs of a Murder Man," by a police officer in the homicide bureau (1930). This new digitized archive, called Making of America, is maintained by the University of Michigan. Available at www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/, it offers free access to thousands of volumes of Americana, including works about New York City written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The New York collection, 315 volumes and counting, is being digitized with donations from Lawrence J. Portnoy, a Manhattan lawyer and a Michigan alumnus.'
Pros: This is definitely a new treasure. Cons: The images from the books have not been digitized. Downloading is cumbersome since you can only do one page at a time. Hint, chose the pdf viewing option as this will automatically download (at least with my OSX preferences). With pdfs you can later create your own ebooks. PS. The kids from tha above photo probably went to PS20, which was 3 blocks west. "Overheard dialogue" from the above photo, "Hey guys, if we can live another 90 years Toys in Babeland will open across the street." Can you spot the shabbos goy in the photo?