The City Reliquary Museum & Civic Organization

The City Reliquary Museum & Civic traces the history of New York City's five boroughs through displays of cultural ephemera. A “reliquary” is a container for relics. “Relic” can have two meanings: something that is merely old, or, in religious terminology, something that possesses a kind of power due to its contact with an important or holy person. The City Reliquary combines both definitions in its mission, which attempts to reconstruct the past through objects that New Yorkers of previous generations engaged with daily. The beginnings of The City Reliquary date to 2002, when founder Dave Herman began displaying objects in the windows of his Williamsburg apartment on the corner of Havemeyer St. and Grand St. Passersby were intrigued, and Herman received object donations and loans from people wanting to share their own “relics.” The City Reliquary was born. As the collection grew, the museum relocated to its current space on Metropolitan Avenue in 2006.