Permanently settled in 1645, the farming town of Gravesend, Long Island, was annexed to the city (now borough) of Brooklyn, New York, in 1894. Few reminders from Gravesend's rural days survive around the urban landscape it has become. Even its more recent past is quickly disappearing.

In Gravesend, Brooklyn lifelong resident Joseph Ditta, reference librarian at the New-York Historical Society, traces the evolution of this historic neighborhood through a fascinating selection of rare and never-before-published views.