This photo was taken of the NYPL going up in 1905, compare it with the 1905 NYPL in the video. (Courtesy of the MCNY)
A couple of weeks ago this video was posted on Reddit under the headline "Oldest known footage of NYC." The video itself was uploaded in December, under the title: "Oldest footage of New York City ever." We were fairly certain that someone just found some old footage of NYC that exists on YouTube and tossed it all together (and for some reason soundtracked it with "Amazing Grace"), without actually researching if this was indeed the oldest footage ever.
Now the NY Post and just about everyone else has also declared it to be the "oldest footage," but they offer no proof, only words like: "dazzling" and "dramatic." So, we reached out to the NY Historical Society, the New York Public Library, the Museum of the City of NY, and the digital preservation division at NYU. Is this really the oldest footage of New York City?
The consensus is that some of this footage seems like it's not dated properly, and an anonymous source at the MCNY told us, "I think it’s pretty fishy." We're still working to uncover this history mystery, but some of the footage is indeed dated correctly—we have posted a few of these clips (which have all lived on YouTube for a while now) in the past. At 4-minutes in, you'll see a woman having a Marilyn moment over a street grate, which was taken in 1901 (and is correctly dated as such).
For now, we can only confirm that the below footage is catalogued as being taken between 1896 to 1905, which is pretty old, but possibly not "THE OLDEST EVER." After all, the oldest surviving film is from 1888—do you think New York City really wasn't captured on film for seven years after that? Oh whatever, #TBT.
Meanwhile, here's the oldest film showing NYC being destroy by a monster.
