Image courtesy of the Peter J. Cohen Collection
Title: Tour of the Peter J. Cohen Collection
Date & Time: Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 at 4 PM
Duration: 1.5 hours
Capacity: 12
Admission: Free! (Open to A.R.T. Members & Non-Members)
Location: 55 E. 11th Street, Apt. 2 New York, NY 10003
Join Archivists Round Table for a visit to the Peter J. Cohen Collection, which houses over 100,000 photographs, encompassing many different processes and formats, including gelatin silver prints, cyanotypes, hand-tinted photos, chromogenic color prints, Polaroids, real photo postcards, and complete photo albums. The staff at the archive will give a brief introduction to the collection, and then allow for ample browsing time through the many boxes of photographs.
This is an in-person event limited to 12 attendees. Registration is non-transferable. Please note that you MUST reserve a ticket in advance online in order to attend this event.
In the occasion that the event is sold out, we highly recommend joining the waitlist. An ART staff member will reach out to you if a spot becomes available. Unless you've been given permission, please do not show up at the event without registering.
How to find the Peter J. Cohen Collection
The Peter J. Cohen Collection is located at 55 E. 11th Street, in Manhattan, between Broadway and University Pl. The location is a short walk from the 4, 5, 6, N, R, Q, or L train at Union Square.
Meeting location
Attendees will meet inside the entrance of the building.
About
Peter J. Cohen is a New York-based collector of snapshots and vernacular photographs. Spanning the late 19th century to the 1980s, the Peter J. Cohen Collection (PJCC) is one of the largest privately held collections of “anonymous” photographs in the U.S. Material from the PJCC has been donated to and featured in exhibitions at over 60 major art institutions worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Morgan Library, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria & Albert, and The Rijks. Located in downtown New York, the collection is accessible by appointment.
The PJCC currently houses over 100,000 photographs, encompassing many different processes and formats, including gelatin silver prints, cyanotypes, hand-tinted photos, chromogenic color prints, Polaroids, real photo postcards, and complete photo albums. The archive is organized into around 130 categories (and counting.) The breadth of these categories is testament both to Cohen’s extensive collecting interests and to the highly diverse nature of anonymous photography. Taken for the most part by amateurs and ordinary people, these photographs offer a highly unique look into a wide range of social moments, cultural practices, and relationships to image-making.
For more information, and for a comprehensive list of institutions that have photographs from the PJCC, please visit their website.
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Please note that by registering and attending this event/webinar, you automatically grant your consent to be photographed and/ or video-recorded and to the release, publication, or reproduction of any and all recorded media of your appearance, voice, and name for any purpose whatsoever in perpetuity in connection with the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. and its initiatives, including, by way of example only, use on websites, in social media, news, newsletters, Metropolitan Archivist, and advertising.
