In February 2009 the Department of Special Collections and Archives published over 700 of Van Vechten's photographs in a collection titled Postcards from Manhattan: The Portrait Photography of Carl Van Vechten. These portraits depicted 112 notable African Americans, many of them associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Release of these images coincided with the centennial celebration of the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Following the February event, archivists continued digitizing additional portraits, broadening the collection's scope to include the whole range of Van Vechten's subjects. With the release of a second installment in late 2009, the number of people portrayed on the site soared from 112 to 250. The total number of images in the collection nearly doubled. These new portraits include many famous authors, artists, musicians, composers, dramatists, actors (both stage and screen), and directors. The elderly Van Vechten was a patron of the arts, and he maintained a vast network of acquaintances, insuring him a steady stream of subjects to be be photographed.

Archivists have also digitized Van Vechten's lively correspondence with Priebe. For instance, when William Faulkner showed up unexpectedly at one of Van Vechten's parties, "Carlo" (as friends called Van Vechten) ushered the Southern novelist into his studio for an immediate photo shoot. The next day, a delighted Van Vechten wrote on a postcard to Priebe: "Last night we gave a party. About 10, William Faulkner walked in on the arm of a girl we had asked to bring an escort. So I photographed him!"

Additional portraits will be published in 2010.