About Dan McNulty
Daniel McNulty (1908-1976) began and ended his professional life as an undertaker, following in the family business that his father and grandfather had established. But it was his career as a photographer, a long standing hobby that increasingly became a professional practice, that has secured his fame among those who love Jersey City and its history to the present day.
McNulty’s career as a professional photographer began with contract work for newspapers and magazines, including the Hudson Dispatch and The Jersey Journal. In 1947 he was among the inaugural winners of the Hudson County Press Club Memorial Awards.
His career as a funeral arranger slowed down in the late 1940s, as he began to get work as a photographer for different branches and departments of the Jersey City government, as well as contract work documenting the billboards of O’Melia Outdoor Advertising. In the late 1950s he was working closely with Bernard Berry, and continued as a city photographer through the Whelan administration in the mid-1960s. It is this time of his career that is represented in the collection of 4”x5” negatives that was donated to the library after his death.
Following his service in the Whelan administration, he returned to work as an undertaker, managing the Quinn Funeral Home, in operation at the historic Van Wagenen “Apple Tree” House, which in 2023 reopened as the Museum of Jersey City History. While his service in this vital industry provided solace to countless grieving family members, it is his midlife career as a photographer that has made a lasting connection of his name with the city he documented. In 2010 he was inducted into the Circle of Honor at the 9/11 memorial Fountain in Journal Square.