One hundred and twenty years ago in August, Adolph S. Ochs purchased The New-York Times, a paper with a daily circulation of 9,000 and a regional audience. By 1996, it had a circulation of over 1,150,000 and was widely regarded “the newspaper of record,” here and abroad. On the occasion of it’s 100^th anniversary, The Museum of Modern Art [MoMA] joined the centennial celebrations of Mr. Och’s acquisition of the Times by presenting a major exhibition of photographs from its archives.

In the spirit of this important event, The New York Times announced a gift to The Museum of Modern Art of three hundred remarkable photographs from its archive of over five million pictures. [It also] forms the basis of the one hundred and photographs that constitute the exhibition,  Pictures of the Times: A Century of Photography from the New York Times.—adapted from the Foreword to the exhibition catalogue by Glenn D. Lowry, Director, MoMA

Last month MoMA released the online archive of its exhibitions, from which today’s feature is sampled. In addition to the exhibition press release and photographs for Pictures of the Times: A Century of Photography from the New York Times, the entire catalogue, now out of print, is available to read as a PDF. The catalogue includes an informative essay by the curator, Pete Galassi, who notes that the power of each photo "arises from the function they all were made to serve: not to tell the story of the news but to set forth a presence beyond words;" it also includes a timeline of newspaper history from 1810, when the average circulation of New York City dailies was around 900 copies. The timeline includes exceptional information about the history of publishing, with juicy items like the first half-tone photograph being published in a newspaper, in 1891, and QuarkXpress being adopted as the page make-up software, in 1987, thereby ending the epic strikes by Linotype workers that had periodically crippled the paper’s operations in the past.

The MoMA exhibition archive is an invaluable resource for scholars, students, artists, historians and "anyone concerned with contemporary art, and a welcome addition to the Web for image pigs like me. Start browing now at MoMA.org.

Herewith a selection from the MoMA archive of several of the most compelling images from Pictures of the Times, chosen for their pictorial, rather than newsworthy qualities.

Top: Over Paris, 1943-44; photo: U.S.Army Air Force

The Shortest Day in the Year in the Far North, December 22,, 1935. J.C.P. Stoke/Times Wide World Photos

World Series: Yankees vs. Dodgers, October 2, 1953. Ernie Sisto/The New York Times

Violence in Boston, April 5, 1976. Stanley J. Forman/Boston Herald American via Associated Press

Giant Liner Launched and Named 'Queen Mary,' September 26, 1934. Times Wide World Photos