  We present new high-resolution near-infrared observations in the J,H and K
bands, obtained to study the properties of Seyfert host galaxies. The dataset
consists of images in the three bands of practically the entire CfA sample of
Seyfert galaxies, and K-band images of a control sample of non-active,
`normal', galaxies, matched to the Seyfert sample in the distribution of type
and inclination. The spatial resolution and sampling of the new images is a
factor 2 better than previously published K-band data. In this paper, we
present the data in the form of profiles of surface brightness and color,
ellipticity and major axis position angle, as well as greyscale maps of surface
brightness in H or K and both J-H and H-K colors. We compare our surface
brightness and color profiles with the literature, and find good agreement.
  Our data are discussed in detail in three subsequent publications, where we
analyze the morphologies of Seyfert and normal hosts, quantify the strength of
nonaxisymmetric features in disks and their relationship to nuclear activity,
address the question of bar fraction in Seyferts and normal galaxies, and
analyze the color information in the framework of emission mechanisms in
Seyfert 1s and 2s, and in non-active galaxies.
