NewYorkHeritage.org is a research portal for students, educators, historians, genealogists, and others who are interested in learning more about the people, places and institutions of historical New York State. The site provides immediate free access to more than 160 distinct digital collections that reflect New York State’s long history. These collections represent a broad range of historical, scholarly, and cultural materials held in libraries, museums, and archives throughout the state. Collection items include photographs, letters, diaries, directories, maps, newspapers, books, and more.

A list of participating institutions may be found here; for more information about the project, click here.

Have you ever found yourself waiting for passersby to move out of your viewfinder? Perhaps while trying to photograph architecture or other works of art? A free web-based filter allows you to remove tourists and other unwanted moving objects from your photographs. The aptly titled Tourist Remover even allows up to 100 MB of storage (and more with a paid upgrade).

Read more about how the tool works here. Happy 4th of July picture-taking!

The Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs includes 7,610 photographs, 230 glass lantern slides, and various other materials depicting life in Africa from 1860-1960. For the first time, thousands of these images are now available for free online, thanks to Northwestern University Library.

The collection chronicles Europe’s colonization of East Africa, including the work of explorers, colonial officials, settlers, missionaries, military officers, travelers and early commercial photographers. The collection’s website also includes information for educators, including image galleries of political leaders, animals, monuments, and more.

Duke University Libraries has launched an online digital collection of about 5,000 photographs shot primarily in China between 1917 and 1932.

The photographs were taken by Sidney Gamble, the grandson of Procter and Gamble co-founder James Gamble, and provide a glimpse into daily life unlike any other photographs from this period. A sociologist, China scholar, and avid amateur photographer, Gamble travelled extensively in China from Liaoning province in the northeast to Guangdong province in the south and to the western edge of Sichuan province along the border of Tibet.

The photographs came to light when Gamble’s daughter, Catherine Curran, discovered the collection at the family’s home. She gave the entire collection to Duke in 2006, just before her death.