The archive features more than thirty-five hundred exhibitions and more than thirty-three thousand installation photographs, as well as primary documents such as press releases, checklists, catalogues, and artist lists.

Michelle Elligott, chief of the museum’s archives, told the New York Times, “This is like a dream come true for me, because I’ve been playing around with this material for twenty years and I know the depth of what’s here.”

Elligott, who worked with Fiona Romeo, the director of digital content and strategy, to realize the “living archive,” said that they made some surprising discoveries while working on the project. They learned that the date of the first show dedicated to a female artist was actually earlier than they previously thought. Titled “Creative Growth, Childhood to Maturity,” the 1939 exhibition presented works by Dahlov Zorach Ipcar. They also found that Pablo Picasso has been included in 320 exhibitions at the museum, which is more than any other artist.