The Museum of the City of New York

The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) was established in 1923 with an aim to “collect, preserve, and present original materials related to the history of New York City.” The museum receives individual contributions from corporations and foundations in addition to the public funds granted by the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The museum is housed in a beautiful building that brings back memories of colonial mansions of yesteryears. It is made of large red-brick with white stone columns accenting the entranceway, and floors and stairways inlaid with marble.

MCNY is the place you want to be if you want to familiarize yourself with all there is to know about New York City. In addition to hundreds of paintings showing you life in New York over the ages, there are various other interesting exhibits for you to browse through. Be prepared to spend quite a few hours here, in case you are planning on looking through everything the museum has to offer.

There is an exhibit that takes you through the days when New York was one of the major seaports in the world. Here, you get to see models of ships that sailed the sea in that era. There’s also a massive statue of the inventor of the steamship standing seven feet tall.

Children will be especially fascinated by the “New York Toy Stories” exhibition that has 10,000 toys on display, including board games that were sold at the turn of the century and original Kewpie dolls and clowns. Of course, they are all behind the glass, so you can’t actually play with them, but they make for interesting viewing nonetheless.  Also, there’s the 12-room dollhouse that tool designer Carrie Walter Stettheimer over two decades to make. The walls of this dollhouse have original works by famous artists, including the three-inch-long “Nude Descending a Staircase” by Marcel Duchamp.

If you have enough time, get yourself seats for the screening of “Timescapes: A Multimedia Portrait of New York” on the second floor. This 25-minute movie is narrated by Stanley Tucci and uses paintings, maps, and cool vintage photos to contextualize what you may have learned in the museum. Treat yourself a trip to the MCNY and learn more about the city you are living in.

• Address: 1220 Fifth Ave at 103rd St
• Phone: 212-534-1672
• Hours of Operation: Tue to Sun – 10am to 5pm
• Suggested Donation $10; seniors and students: $6, members and children 12 and under: free.
• Website: www.mcny.org

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