Film Gives Rare Snapshot of NYC in 1911

New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is giving online viewers a chance to time travel back to 1911 New York via a rare, nine-minute film available on its website until July 14. According to the museum, Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern filmed the black-and-white footage, depicting everyday life in the Big Apple as the viewer is taken around bridges, waterways, elevated trains, and famous buildings to sites like the Statue of Liberty.

The documentary travelogue was part of an international project to make films of the day’s most well-known places, like Paris, Monte Carlo, and Venice, though the museum says it only houses the New York City footage. Per Curbed, New York 1911 is part of an initiative by the museum to digitize parts of its collection and make them more widely available. This restoration was derived from the original nitrate print of the film and put to music by silent film composer Ben Model. (More MoMA stories.)