Urban Neighbors: Images of New York City Wildlife

Urban Neighbors is a celebration of the diversity and abundance of New York City wildlife, as documented in artistically striking visual images selected from The New York Public Library's vast resources. Pigeons, House Sparrows, Crows, Starlings, Gray Squirrels, House Mice, feral cats, Blue Jays, and Robins (and an occasional Library Lion) are inhabitants of New York City's "concrete jungle," as are the Peregrine Falcons nesting on skyscrapers and bridges, Monk Parakeet communities thriving on Brooklyn utility poles, and House Finches waking apartment dwellers with their melodious early morning song. The city's extensive green areas -- parks and wildlife refuges, lawns and backyards -- are rich in diverse species of birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles, insects and other invertebrates. The waters surrounding and within the city are now cleaner than they have been in many years, and are home to numerous fishes and invertebrates, as well as water birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.



The images on view in Urban Neighbors date from the 17th century to the present, and include books illustrated with hand-colored engravings and lithographs, chromolithographs, and photomechanically printed illustrations. There are also posters, magazine covers, original photographs, and drawings. Highlights include images by noted zoological artists, including Mark Catesby, John James Audubon, Marcus E. Bloch, John Abbot, Jacques Barraband, Alexander Wilson, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Josef Wolf, Jean-Gabriel Prêtre, and Roger Tory Peterson. The selections are drawn primarily from the extensive holdings of many Library units, including the General Research Division; Rare Books Division; Arents Collection of Books in Parts; Science, Industry and Business Library; the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs; Manuscripts and Archives Division; Map Division; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature; and the Branch Libraries Picture Collection.