Basically since the invention of the camera, the New York Police Department (NYPD) has photographed crimes scenes and cars accidents. The National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent US federal agency, announced on Monday that they will support the digitization of around 30,000 of these photographs from 1914 to 1975, making them viewable to the public for the first time. The photographs are stunning, even unreal sometimes, as if they're stills from a rediscovered movie.

Some photographs will seem familiar since they depict famous crimes already documented by photographer Weegee, such as the murder victim Dominick Didato on Elizabeth Street in 1936. Many photographs may give you chills but there are photographs of protests as well - fascinating contemporary documents that reveal the city’s darker history.