A graffiti-covered subway car at a dusk train yard, city skyline behind it.

Aerosol Archive

Aerosol Archive is a journal on the history of graffiti, from subway writers and blackbooks to global scenes and gallery walls.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • 1What will I find on Aerosol Archive?
    Articles on the history of graffiti: its origins in New York, how lettering styles developed, how the culture spread internationally, and how it moved into galleries and museums.
  • 2Are the dates and details checked?
    Yes. Where we give a date, a first, or a technical claim, we try to trace it to a photograph, an interview, or another primary source rather than repeat secondhand summaries.
  • 3Do I need to know graffiti already?
    No. Articles are written for curious readers with no prior background, with enough context to follow terms like tag, throw-up, and wildstyle as they come up.
  • 4Can I send a correction or a lead?
    Please do. Reader tips, photographs, and corrections shape a good part of what we publish, especially for details that are hard to verify from a distance.
  • 5How often do you publish?
    New articles appear regularly, with longer pieces on specific writers, scenes, or techniques alongside shorter historical notes.

Welcome to Aerosol Archive

Aerosol Archive is a journal for people curious about where graffiti actually came from, not just what it looks like today. We write about the writers, crews, techniques, and cities that built the culture, from the first tags on New York trains to the walls and galleries it eventually reached.

Every article is written to be read as history rather than hype: how a technique developed, why a scene formed where it did, and what changed when graffiti moved from the street to the studio. Start with a piece of the story, and follow the thread from there.