The borough of Queens has been many things—a playground for wealthy Manhattanites, a recreation area for pleasure seekers, a highly industrialized pocket of New York City, and one of the most beautiful and residential sections of which the city can boast.

Queens is home to the Mets, airports LaGuardia in the north and JFK in the south, and a steady force behind New York City, sheltering its laborers, builders, taxi drivers, teachers, fire fighters, police officers, lawyers, businesspeople, and everyone else for more than a century.

From the borough’s rural origins to its multiethnic, metropolitan character of recent times, Historic Photos of Queens celebrates the legacy of those who dared to head east, who settled the countryside, and who tempted the Atlantic when they built lives on the Rockaway peninsula. Nearly 200 images reproduced in vivid black-and-white, with captions and introductions, tell the story.