Tag Archives: Bowery

New York 1921 Not Quite A Sanctuary City

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In 1921 Police Were Not Concentrating On Rounding-Up Illegal Aliens

Instead They Were Arresting The Unemployed, Especially Those From Other Cities

Page 2 article New York Herald January 16, 1921

In 1921 instead of illegals, the New York City Police Department were gathering up men from other cities who were jobless.

This article is from the January 16, 1921 New York Herald:

POLICE ROUNDING UP NON-RESIDENT IDLE

Jobless Who Do Not Live Here Arrested as Vagrants.

Squads of detectives and uniformed policemen, under orders to arrest unemployed men who could not prove themselves residents of New York City, went through the lower East Side last night and early to-day inspecting saloons and lunch rooms. At one saloon at 199 Worth street twenty-nine men, who had nothing to do but warm themselves  beside a stove, were made prisoners and locked In the Elizabeth street station on charges of vagrancy. Continue reading →

A Hard Life – Photos Of Turn-of-the Century Newsboys In New York City

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Photographer Lewis Hine Captured Child Labor In Action

10 Of His Newsboy Photographs In New York City 1908-1910

Newsboys with heavy loads. Park Row, New York City, July 1910 photo: Lewis Hine

In turn-of-the-century New York, child labor, with some kids working seven days a week, was not uncommon.

Working as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Lewis Hine (1874-1940) documented working and living conditions of children in the United States between 1908 and 1924. Over 5100 prints and 355 glass negatives were donated to the Library of Congress in 1954 by  Mrs. Gertrude Folks Zimand, acting for the NCLC in her capacity as chief executive.

Hine didn’t just focus on newsboys and New York City , but turned his camera to all trades in which children were engaged and traveled all over the United States photographing the grueling work done by boys and girls, sometimes as young as five-years-old.

Hine captured the children candidly or in simple poses, without staging. His portraits can evoke strong emotions.

In New York City you needed a news badge to sell newspapers. Laws were set up to prevent very young children from engaging in work. The laws were usually ignored by the children, their families and/or the authorities.

When looking at these photographs there are several things to notice. The first is the expression on the boys’ face. The next is the clothing. Their shoes always stand out, usually the condition varies from fair to horrendous. Considering how much walking a newsboy would do in what could end up being a 12 hour plus day, it is natural that shoes would break down.

Waiting for Fight Extras. Times Square. July 4, 1910 6 P.M. Location: New York, New York

The rest of the attire that newsboys wear is also interesting. The shirts, pants and jackets are stereotypically shabby, but rarely are the boys wearing rags. These kids were battling for sales and tried  to make themselves as saleable as the newspapers they sold. Finally pay attention when possible to the background, which is of course, New York City. The buildings, stores, streets, vehicles, sidewalks and people – always intriguing.

For the newsboys, one of the common tricks was to go into a bar with only a few papers and tell the customers these were the last papers you had for the day and after they were sold you would then be able to go home. The sympathetic bar patrons would usually buy the remaining copies and then the boy would go outside grab some more newspapers he had stashed and proceed to the next bar and repeat the scene.

Newspapers were generally two cents per copy. On a  good day a “newsie” might make between 25 and 50 cents. Continue reading →

Mayor La Guardia’s Homeless Solution – Arrest Them

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New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s 1942 solution for homelessness: Get to work or we’ll arrest you!

Bowery bums told to leave by LaGuardia 1942Rounding ’em up

New York City – “The Bowery Bum must go!” decreed New York’s Mayor La Guardia in his latest drive for municipal purity, and police squads promptly invaded the habitats of New York’s human derelicts and piled their collection into patrol wagons. Photo shows a group of the hapless men climbing into the “pie wagon”.  The mayor predicted that 30 days in the workhouse would cure them of their gutter-sleeping habits. (photo credit Acme) 11/18/1942

In 1942 some of New York City’s homeless population were comprised of families, but it also had a great deal of what were termed derelicts, vagrants and bums. These were the denizens of New York’s infamous street of despair, the Bowery.

That November, under the orders of Chief Magistrate Henry H. Curran and with the blessing of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, the order to clear the Bowery bums off the streets or be arrested was given. It may sound harsh, but then it was how the city felt they could best deal with the undesired population inhabiting the streets of the Bowery. Mayor La Guardia claimed he had received complaints from several mission societies and churches along the Bowery about the actions of the homeless on the street. Continue reading →

Old New York In Photos #28 – New York City Early Color Photos

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New York City In Old Color Photographs At The Turn Of The Century

Mulberry Street Detroit Publishing Company

Mulberry Street in color New York City 1900

Life was colorful in turn of the century New York City. But because almost all the photographs we see from that era are in black and white, it is hard to imagine what the city looked like in its full color glory.

The Library of Congress holds the incredible collection of The Detroit Publishing Company who manufactured postcards and chronicled the world with their photographs from 1880-1920.

One of the processes used to achieve color was called the photochrom. Photochrom’s are color photo lithographs created from a black and white photographic negative. Color impressions are achieved through the application of multiple lithograph stones, one per color. In 1897, the Detroit Publishing Company brought the process over from Switzerland where it was first developed.

The images presented here were eventually used for postcards. Here is a look at New York circa 1900 in high resolution color photographs. Click on any image to vastly enlarge.

South Street Brooklyn Bridge 1900 Detroit Publishing

South Street and Brooklyn Bridge 1900

Looking north along South Street with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. This was still the age when shipping and boats crowded the harbor.

City Hall 1900 Detroit Publishing

City Hall New York City 1900

City Hall looking northwest with a sliver of City Hall Park on the bottom extreme left. Continue reading →