New to the Archives: The East Village Eye Records

The Manuscripts and Archives Division of The New York Public Library is pleased to announce that the records of the East Village Eye are now open to researchers. 

Founded by publisher Leonard Abrams in downtown New York City, the East Village Eye was a groundbreaking and influential underground newspaper published between 1979 and 1987. The publication serves as an unparalleled record of the development of the East Village in the 1980s, and it played a pivotal role in defining New York’s “downtown scene” during a transformative decade. The New York Public Library is the only public institution in the world that houses a complete run of the Eye—72 issues in total. 

Leonard Abrams was only 25 years old when the first issue of the Eye hit newsstands, and he served as its editor-in-chief throughout its eight-year run. The paper hosted a roster of iconic columnists, from resident advice columnist Cookie Mueller to punk legend Richard Hell. 

The Eye remained a small publication, but one with a massive, even global cultural reach. At its height, it boasted a circulation of about 10,000 copies a month, available in New York City and at various outposts across the United States, but with worldwide subscriptions. Administrative papers include photographs and letters of people reading their copy of the Eye in Madrid, Minneapolis, and beyond. The collection also documents the daily workings of a small publication—advertising, correspondence, datebooks, financial records, and more. 

The records of the Eye will be essential to researchers studying the evolution of the punk movement, the growth of hip-hop (the Eye may have been the first publication to use and explore the term), the rise of HIV/AIDS (captured in real-time across the early 1980s), and the early careers of artists like Basquiat, Mapplethorpe, and Fab Five Freddy. 

At its heart, the Eye was a local paper. It chronicled, in real time, the contours of gentrification in the East Village, the city’s complicated multiculturalism, the neighborhood’s art and music scene, sexual expression, and New York City politics. The paper built ongoing partnerships with local designers like Patricia Field and clubs like Danceteria, and its ads capture local shops, now long gone. The collection has remarkable potential for a growing body of researchers focusing on reconstructing the vanishing pasts of New York City. 

The East Village Eye records include an extensive collection of photography by up-and-coming photographers like Marcia Resnick, Eric Kroll, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Patrick McMullan, and Andres Serrano, who shot for the newspaper. The paper was an incubator for up-and-coming graphic artists; the collection holds hundreds of pieces of original art, mixed-media collages, and comic strip panels by artists including Lynda Barry, Tuli Kupferberg, Joseph Nechtvatal, and others. 

The Library acquired the records of the East Village Eye from Leonard Abrams last year. Abrams spent years trying to find the right home for the collection; the Library turned out to be the perfect fit. “I can't think of another institution,” Abrams said in February 2023, “with the breadth and depth of interest, the institutional strength, and the dedication to the common good that compares to The New York Public Library.” Abram’s quest to ensure the long-term preservation of the East Village Eye archive was even covered by The New Yorker. 

Tragically, Leonard Abrams died suddenly in April 2023, only a few months after the collection came to the Library. As the curator who oversees the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division, I had the opportunity to work closely with Abrams and to learn from him. I know that he would have been thrilled to see this collection opened to the Library’s many researchers, and to track the myriad ways that generations of scholars, artists, students, teachers, and learners will use it in their work. 

The Manuscripts and Archives Division welcomes all researchers to explore the East Village Eye records. Start by reading through the collection guide. If you need help making an appointment, would like to speak to a librarian about your research, or have any questions about our collections, please reach out to the division via manuscripts@nypl.org.