New York City's finest repository of local historical artifacts and memorabilia. Located in the Will
The City Reliquary is a not-for-profit community museum and civic organization. Through permanent display of artifacts, rotating exhibits of community collections, and annual cultural events, The City Reliquary connects visitors to New York City past and present.
Operating as usual
For over a century, all across New York City, the women behind the fascinating evolution of Wonder Woman have rejected social norms and fought tirelessly to break the chains of orthodoxy in its many forms.
Come experience the fascinating and complex history about the tie between Wonder Woman and Women’s rights this weekend, in our exhibit Wonder Women: NYC’s Heroes of Heterodoxy!
We are open 12-6pm every Saturday and Sunday.
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Our Volunteer of the Month for November is Fiona!
started with us in July 2021, here are a few words from her:
I love volunteering at the City Reliquary! It’s one of the most special and unique places in the city and I’m happy to be a part of our little civic institution.
If you’re interested in volunteering with us, you can go to the link in our bio to learn more and sign up!
We ❤️ our community!
Thanks to every person who has been a part of City Reliquary of the years, we are so grateful for all the joyous memories we have shared ☺️
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Time to start planning your weekend trip to City Reliquary!
Our ever growing permanent collection has all the niche NYC history you need 🗽
And our rotating exhibit is still telling the thrilling story of Wonder Women: NYC’s Heroes of Heterodoxy ⭐️
We’ll be open this Saturday and Sunday, 12-6pm. See you there! 🗽
Thanks for visiting and taking this great pic!
Need a gift this holiday season?
We’ve been updating our gift shop with all kinds of NYC themed goodies like candles, mugs, books, shirts, keychains, stickers, and more!
All gift shop purchases go straight to helping City Reliquary thrive as a small, volunteer run Brooklyn nonprofit ☺️
Get some cool gifts this holiday season, while supporting your local community!
Friday! It’s the TWO YEAR ANNIVERSAY of blowing our minds every month in our backyard ✨🥳✨🥳✨
Come see , , , , , and special guest take it all off to Nevermind by Nirvana on a real vinyl record ✨
Tickets in our bio, and as always, tickets are free for our beloved members 🥳
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Who remembers our very first display on the corner of Havemeyer and Grand?
For those of you who don’t know, City Reliquary started as a small exhibit in our founder Dave Herman’s apartment window.
With just a few artifacts, like a city hall window chain, a set of dentures found in Dead Horse Bay, and Statue of Liberty figurines, the spot soon became a neighborhood favorite.
On the building’s exterior, Dave carefully painted directions to nearby landmarks and subways. He also installed a button that, when pressed, would lead guests through an audio tour of the artifacts.
More than 20 years later, we have greatly expanded both our space and collection, to a thriving museum alive with New York City history and community ☺️
A new exhibition about Jewish delis is borrowing our beloved 2nd Ave Deli sign!
“I’ll Have What She’s Having: The Jewish Deli” is a traveling show developed by the .
It’ll be at through April 2nd, check it out for a new perspective on your favorite neighborhood stop ☺️
We’re in a new book!
Our board member .ess.ess.see is quoted, saying “the items together form a ruin, acquiring new meaning over time.”
The book goes on to say “artifacts provide an opportunity for time travel… transporting us to another era.”
We are so grateful that in our 20 years of history, art, and community we have become a can’t miss part of what makes Brooklyn, Brooklyn ☺️
We are so grateful to have hosted the 25 year anniversary of Carousel in our backyard this month!
For a quarter of a century, has been curating a show of the best and brightest comics writers, and hosting it all over New York City. Hundreds of people have performed, attended, and participated in this show in that time!
Thanks to all the artists who performed on this special night, , , , , , and !
We are looking forward to more Carousel this Spring!
⏰Come and experience a retro-tech time-travel experience unlike any other!⏰
Immerse yourself in the 1950s through incredible Midcentury 3-D photographs — taken mostly by amateurs with the Stereo Realist Camera system.
Emmy-winning writer and comedian has been collecting the amazing images produced by this largely-forgotten technology for 25 years and will share them with you in your own (for the night) high-quality restored vintage stereo viewer.
New York City will be highlighted, but all of America is the star. Don’t miss this intimate yet spectacular trip to the past!
🎟There are only 10 tickets available for this evening, so we highly recommend purchasing in advance to guarantee your seat (and stereo-viewer)! Tickets at the link in our bio 🎟
Brooklyn! It’s almost time to VOTE!
Positions in congress and statewide offices are on the ballot, and so are measures on the environment, racial equity, and cost of living.
Find your polling station, make a plan, and cast your vote this Tuesday!
Have you gotten your special edition, Wonder Women: Heroes if Heterodoxy zine yet?
As a companion to our exhibit of the same name, we compiled a zine with many prominent artists and writers who have worked as NYC comics, and with Wonder Woman comics especially.
The zine address themes integral to the Wonder Woman comics and their surrounding NYC history including early 20th century birth control pioneers,
underground and Gay Comix
1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-generation feminists, BIPOC representations in comic art, NYC protest activities including women’s suffrage parades, pride parades, the BLM movement, and women’s, transgender, and q***r liberation.
The zine is free with museum admission! Come visit this weekend between 12-6 to get yours!
The New York World’s fairs of 1939/1940 and 1964/1965 took place at particularly tumultuous moments in American history.
At the intersection of the Great Depression and World War II, the 1939 World’s Fair offers a look at an unsettled and anxiety filled junction in time.
The 1964 fair, positioned in midst of the nascent space-age and political upheaval, offers insight into mid-century notions of progress.
The City Reliquary’s collection, which features memorabilia from both fairs, allows us to analyze these critical events through objects.
Start planning your weekend trip now to experience an incredibly important part of NYC history! We’ll be open 12-6pm Saturday and Sunday ☺️
Next Saturday! Come see Carousel, where presentations of graphic novels, gag cartoons, and comics are performed by the writers and artists themselves, on our big outdoor screen!
Featuring amazing NYC artists , , , , , and ✨
The show, hosted by , will be followed by a book signing.
Get your tickets now at the link in our bio, and if you’re a member, rsvp for your free admission!
In 1947, all eyes were on Flatbush and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The team had signed Jackie Robinson, an African-American, to a major league baseball contract marking the first attempt to integrate “organized baseball.”
Robinson’s story is a remarkable one. An inexperienced player, but an athlete and activist in every sense, Robinson proved to be the right man to take the first steps toward baseball’s integration. Combating racism in America’s national pastime would be an uphill battle though, and the Reliquary’s collection of Robinson memorabilia reminds us of that battle.
In 1947, all eyes were on Flatbush and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The team had signed Jackie Robinson, an African-American, to a major league baseball contract marking the first attempt to integrate “organized baseball.”
Robinson’s story is a remarkable one. An inexperienced player, but an athlete and activist in every sense, Robinson proved to be the right man to take the first steps toward baseball’s integration. Combating racism in America’s national pastime would be an uphill battle though, and the Reliquary’s collection of Robinson memorabilia reminds us of that battle.
The 🎃👻 👻🎃Halloween show is this Friday!
Featuring , , , , and , with special guest dancing to the music of 👻
Get your tickets at the link in our bio for this always shocking, always unforgetttable, always amazing night 🎃
Because come on, where else are you going to see a Rob Zombie burlesque show?
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The weekend is here and you know what that means! City Reliquary is open for business!
Bring your best friend, your first date, your great aunt visiting from out of town, or anyone you kinda like or really love for a trip down memory lane in our little museum ☺️
We’re open from 12pm-6pm every Saturday and Sunday, see you there!
featured us as an essential stop, if you only had 36 Hours in New York City!
Writer captured our little museum wonderfully when she said we are “packed (really packed” with “a quirky and fascinating collection of New York artifacts.”
Check out the whole article at the link in our bio ☺️
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Thanks for this awesome article about our event with ☺️
We had an incredible time with these Brooklyn writers, who talked about how Brooklyn inspires their writing, how they got here, and why they live here.
Writer Will McDonald captured the story wonderfully with this snapshot.
“I’m gay, that’s why I moved to Brooklyn!” Ghinwa Jawhari said to laughs and applause from the audience and fellow panelists, followed by “As an immigrant, I feel like I have to be in New York City,” and “Brooklyn is the Mecca... There’s a reason the Book Festival is held here, right?”
For the whole story, visit the link in our bio!
Friday! The multimedia show will have comics readings, stand up comedy, short films, animation and more 🤩🤩🤩
Join for one of the last backyard shows of the season in the beautiful autumn air ☺️
More info and tickets in our bio!
Tomorrow! We have a Brooklyn favorite event, Big Irv’s Storytelling Roadshow, coming to our beautiful backyard!
Come enjoy the beautiful autumn weather with some incredible storytellers with us at 7:30pm ☺️
Tickets and info in our bio.
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Tomorrow! We have a Brooklyn favorite event, Big Irv’s Storytelling Roadshow, coming to our beautiful backyard!
Come enjoy the beautiful autumn weather with some incredible storytellers with us at 7:30pm ☺️
Tickets in our bio.
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Halloween is here and we have the perfect show to kick off the season 🎃👻🍁
Burlesque Apothecary is bringing a spooky scary burlesque show to our backyard Thursday, October 6th!
Join us to get in the spirit this holiday season 🎃🍁👻
📸 giamckenna
Tonight! We have the best of the best comics writers reading their work on the big screen in our beautiful backyard ☺️
Join us to experience this one if a kind show, get your tickets now at the link in our bio ☺️☺️☺️
It’s almost the weekend and you know what that means - it’s time to start planning your trip to City Reliquary!
Just in time to catch our latest exhibit, Wonder Women: NYC’s Heroes of Hererodoxy 🦸♀️🦸🦸♂️
We’re open 12pm-6pm every Saturday and Sunday, see you there!
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We are so thrillled that is holding TWO events at City Reliquary next week!
On Tuesday Carousel is back with us for a new and exciting array of NYC artists reading their comics while projected on our big screen 🎥
Then on Thursday, Stories of Brooklyn is bringing a multidisciplinary gathering of
authors exploring what it means to live, write, and be in community with other writers in Brooklyn 🗽
Visit the link in our bio for more info, and to get your tickets!
Our little museum isn’t the only place you can find wild and wonderful New York City history!
Check out our website for digital exhibits on Lady Liberty, Jackie Robinson, and the World’s Fairs.
We also have a ton of more info on our permanent and rotating exhibits, plus image galleries so you can have a City Reliquary experience from your very own home.
Check it out at the link in our bio, and plan your trip today to see even more!
Friday! are back to bring to bring yet another incredible show to our beautiful backyard ✨
This time, with a tribute to The Spice Girls 🌶🌶🌶
Get your tickets at the link in our bio, and as always, our beloved members get in for free :)
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Our Volunteer of the Month is ! Seth joined us in 2021, and within the year became an intern. Seth quickly became an integral part of the team, helping in events, promotion, design, and learning how our little museum runs from top to bottom.
Seth just graduated with their bachelor degree from , and is now starting a masters program in painting at the New York Academy of the Arts.
We want to thank them for always bringing fantastic attitude, driven spirit, and creative power to every situation!
From Seth: “I first heard of the city reliquary through a friend, who told me so excitedly how he found this cool museum where he could play classical music for parties.
My imagination conjured an image of the kind of museum in my home town of San Diego, of state-funded educational exhibits and uniformed tour guides outfitted with walkie-talkies. I thought it wasn't really my scene, but I went with him anyway when he told me he was going to a "ballet show".
When I saw for the first time I was shocked that this definitely wasn't a ballet, but also incredibly inspired by the energy and pride of this community, I felt an acceptance here I never thought I could experience, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it right then and there.
I feel so lucky to have befriended Charlotte and to have had this opportunity to contribute to the Reliquary, it has been a constant and a haven for me as I navigate this immense metropolis and discover myself more every passing year.”
Thanks again for everything you do!
We are open! Stop by today, tomorrow, and every Saturday and Sunday from 12-6pm to discover hidden NYC gems, local stories from our beautiful neighborhoods, artifacts that will blow your mind, and a newfound sense of what makes our city great 🗽🗽🗽
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Sunday! We have Big Irv’s Storytelling Roadshow coming to City Reliquary 🤩
This show has been a Brooklyn favorite, and used to be held at Big Irv’s in Williamsburg until it’s unfortunate closure last year.
We are so happy to bring it back to the neighborhood, with storytellers and comedians featured in Comedy Central, Edinburg Fringe, The Moth, and more!
Get your tickets now at the link in our bio, and we’ll see you there ☺️
Tonight! is returning to our beautiful backyard for a night of cinematic readings, in the n**e!
Join us for articles, book excerpts, fan fiction, poetry, reviews, scripts, and more read by some of the most talented performers in NYC!
Tickets at the link in our bio, get them now and see you at the show starting at 8pm ☺️
It's time for another big batch of 16mm (no digital!) animated cartoons from the 1920s through the 1950s, straight from the archives —on the City Reliquary's backyard silver screen!
Our 103rd program will focus on a theme that is quite fitting for the series: nighttime happenings. Whether it's about enjoying a night out on the town or experiencing some wild dreams thereafter, you'll be sure to enjoy these animated adventures with classic characters such as Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, Mighty Mouse, Porky Pig, Casper, and others!
Be sure to bring all your family and friends out to see these classic and now-rare cartoons the way they were meant to be seen—projected on 'reel' film, and enjoyed with a physical audience.
In addition to the film program, we'll also have a small tag sale of cartoony items in order to raise some extra funds for film archiving costs. You'll find all sorts of fun and vintage goodies available for your own collections, or to give as gifts!
✨✨✨Get tickets while they last at the link in our bio ✨✨✨
370 Metropolitan Avenue
New York, NY
11211
| Saturday | 12pm - 6pm |
| Sunday | 12pm - 6pm |
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We love old stuff at The City Reliquary, and that’s why Cartoon Carnival is one of our favorite events to host 🤩 @tomatitojose collects and shows the best real, vintage 33mm films in our backyard on the big screen, and you can join us! Tickets are at the link in our bio, but in the meantime, get a taste of what’s going to happen in this awesome video 🤩 #museum #nycmuseum #volunteer #volunteeringisfun #nycnonprofit #brooklynmuseum #brooklynhistory #nychistory #nyc #brooklyn #williamsburg #cartoons #vintage #33mm #filmshowing
strangely intimate talk show emceed by satan 8pm $15
Electric Moses serenades us at the City Reliquary holiday party for members and volunteers! #electricmoses #holidayparty
We’re in a podcast episode today about the past, the future, and dancing to the last record playing in an abandoned strip club at the end of the world. Search for ❝act two new york❞ in your favorite podcast app, slap it in the tape deck and drive with the windows down.
Tomorrow night, in the museum: a rancid sample of old school Coney Island sideshow. Our first indoor show. 8pm. $20. Tickets in biography. Afterparty at an undisclosed locale, to be disclosed to attendees.
Mulch is here.
NOW TIL 9PM The @aeonensemble composer fundraiser launch party, with VENMO-POWERED LIVE ENSEMBLE JUKEBOX. $13 at the door. Open to anyone.
Pre-movie tunes with @miss_maybell_ before our slapstick movie showing hosted by @nhughes6759 and @tomatitojose! Getting ready for a night of vintage The Three Stooges movies! Grab a ticket, take your seat, eat some popcorn and enjoy! 🍿🥤📽 #swingmusic #oldschoolcool #vintage #nonprofit #communityart #brooklyn #williamsburg
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center
Broadway
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center
Broadway