About this archive

This is a working collection of archival photographs of the Rockaway Beach, Rockaway Park, and Hammels sections of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens, New York — with a few images from neighboring Arverne where the history overlaps.

How it works

Where a photo's original location is known or can be reasonably inferred, it's placed on the map. Historic postcards rarely list a precise address, so many pins mark the general neighborhood rather than an exact spot — that's noted on each photo's detail page. Photos with no locatable information at all live in the general Photos tab.

Sources

The initial set of images comes from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, primarily its collection of early-1900s photomechanical postcard prints of the Rockaways. Additional photos are being added from personal and family collections.