Greenwich Village has been the home of many women, whose actions have changed the fabric of New York and America.

Few neighborhoods in New York can claim as rich a tradition of social advocacy as Greenwich Village. This collection documents the homes and lives of a few of them.

18 West 10th Street, June 15, 1938. Constructed in 1856 in an Italianate-style, the mansion was built for James Winslow, a wealthy New York banker. The home, four-stories above an English basement, was next door to Winlow's father-in-law and business partner, James F. D. Lanier at No. 16. The building's most striking feature was the three floor to ceiling windows at the parlor level, which matched the entranceway. The original residents only lived in the home for three years. Over the next two decades the mansion would change hands a number of times before being purchased by wealthy and retired sugar merchant Moses Lazarus in 1883. Lazarus, who was in poor health, moved in with his grown daughter, Emma. Emma Lazarus already a known poet, was surrounded by artists on the block, including painter John La Farge who lived two doors down. In 1883, after a trip to Europe, Lazarus wrote "The New Colossus," as part of the fund-raising art exhibition for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Moses died in the home in 1885 and Emma left for a second trip to Europe soon thereafter. She returned to New York and the house in 1887, herself ill. She passed away in November of that year, of what is now believed to have been Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The mansion was sold to Henry B. Livingston, a wealthy scion of an old New York family, before once again passing hands through various of New York's financial elite. For the middle part of the 20th century, the largely unaltered home was occupied by attorney Charles Abrams and his wife, artist Ruth Abrams. Today the basement level has been converted into a separate residence, though the upper floors remain a single-family home.

From mansions to tenements, when it comes to housing, New York has it all. This New York Public Library collection examines housing in New York since the mid-19th century, with a particular focus on vernacular and wood-frame structures across the five boroughs.

Throughout the years many artists have called Greenwich Village home. This collection highlights the writers of Greenwich Village.