History

BAM, BROOKLYN, AND THE ARTS

The BAM Hamm Archives reveal the 150-year history of BAM, but they also tell a story of the communities—civic and artistic—that made BAM what it is today.

The Archives contain approximately 3,000 linear feet of materials dating from 1857 to the present, including newspaper clippings, photographs, books, playbills, promotional material, video, architectural plans, posters, administrative records, production elements, art and other materials.

The Archives and its staff provide a rich and unique resource for researchers interested in BAM artists, the history of performing arts in the US, and in Brooklyn's social history.

HISTORY OF THE ARCHIVES

The need for a formal BAM Archives was identified in 1995 when a search for records, photographs and other materials revealed that items of historical value had become scattered in various BAM buildings and throughout New York City. BAM had lost parts of its archive materials in the 1903 fire that destroyed BAM's original building in Brooklyn Heights and to a flood in 1977, but the remaining collection and documentation of ongoing programs were consolidated in 2005 are now housed in the BAM Hamm Archives Center, a state-of-the-art facility in Metrotech Center. The archivists are completing a new system that will soon allow researchers to search the collection and view certain materials online.