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East Village scavenger hunt challenges users to recreate historic photos

Brush up on your Manhattan history before taking on this challenge.

An East Village scavenger hunt will task New Yorkers with finding the city’s historic gems that are hidden in plain sight on Saturday.

Urban Archive, a free app that curates photos from museums, libraries and other organizations, is organizing the weekend event in the East Village to prove that finding local history is easy and fun.

Contestants will use their iPhones to access historic electronic photos and find corresponding modern day locations. A check-in button on the app will confirm whether or not they have found the right spot. Teams compete to find the most locations on the list.

“New York’s museums and libraries have an incredible wealth of historical photography, documenting the city at every stage of its development — but it’s not always easy for people to see these collections,” said Ben Smyth of Urban Archive. “We want to change that. Mobile technology can make exploring historical photos as easy as looking up subway directions. Our app lets you explore history where it really happened.”

Currently the Urban Archive app is only compatible with iOS, but is being developed for other platforms.

Registration for the scavenger hunt starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Mark’s in the Bowery churchyard at 11th Street and 2nd Ave. For more information go to urbanarchive.nyc.