Last week, the New York Public Library released into the public domain 180,000 images that span centuries, subjects and styles. These are the ones that are, simply, the coolest.

The NYPL breaks down their collections into various genres based on what type of media the photo is, so for our own sanity, we've gone ahead and used those same subjects here.

Before 3D glasses and movies, people from the 19th century used stereograms to get their multidimensional fix. Stereograms consist of two images taken from slightly different angles and presenting them to each eye separately using a stereoscope. You probably don't have one lying around, so we've conveniently made a few gifs for you to better enjoy this effect on your computer. Stereograms consist of the largest portion of the NYPL's image library, and we've tried to capture a few different types below.



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There is A TON more to go through in the newly digitized archive. The easiest way to get a gist of it is through this great data visualization resource the NYPL put together. With it, you can sort by century, genre, collection and color and understand just how much 180,000 documents really means. The main NYPL archive site has a pretty robust search engine that will be useful to researchers, historians and casual searchers alike.

For those curious, a good place to begin your search might be your own hometown or birthplace region. The postcards, photographs, and maps detail hundreds of cities across the country spanning hundreds of years of history. What I've highlighted above is just what caught my eye, but the collection spans science, nature, industry, history, culture, race, architecture, art and more. It's well worth your time to dig into it.

Happy hunting!