Welcome to 1940s New York

It was 1997, and the New York Bound bookstore was going out of business. Steven Romalewski, then a graduate student in urban planning, was browsing the remains when a faded cover caught his eye. He'd hit upon a copy of the New York City Market Analysis from 1943. The Bound staff had written "scarce" on the inside. A hundred bucks later, Romalewski was the proud owner.

The New York City Market Analysis was indeed a rare item. A joint project by four New York newspapers, including the Times and the Hearst company, the book stands as a time capsule to each of the city's 116 neighborhoods. It's filled with brief narrative profiles, demographic statistics from the 1940 Census, black-and-white photos set at a jaunty angle, and full-page color-coded block-by-block maps of building rents.