Berenice Abbott Photographs relating to Changing New York, 1936-1960s

Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) was a photographer in New York City, New York. Her photographs were included in Changing New York (1939).

Abbott was born in 1898 in Springfield, Ohio. She began studying at the Ohio State University and moved to New York City in 1918. Later, she studied sculpture in Paris and became an assistant to Man Ray. By the late 1920s, Abbott began taking photographs of New York City. In 1935, she was hired by the Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project, to document the city's architecture, neighborhoods, and population. Changing New York, a guidebook aimed at visitors to the New York World's Fair, included ninety-seven of Abbott's photographs with captions written by Elizabeth McCausland, an esteemed art critic and Abbott's partner of over thirty-years.

Berenice Abbott died in Maine in 1991.