I just discovered an incredible photo collection of street scenes in New York City from a few years either side of 1900 from a collection made available from the New-York Historical Society; I actually discovered them because of a post in Ephemeral New York. The photos came from the camera of one man, Robert Bracklow (1849-1920), who like me, over 100 years before I did, flaneured all over the city with a camera, shooting what caught his eye. In the late 1800s-early 1900s, of course, there were no such things as point and shoot instamatics and cameras were heavy, clunky affairs and you also need to carry paraphernalia such as heavy glass plates, flash powder and that kind of thing. Yet, Bracklow was able to get crystal clear black and white images that are better than anything I can get with my amateurish skill. Unlike me, Bracklow was a prosperous businessman and owner several stationery shops around town. After his camera was stilled in 1920, 3,000 glass plates and 715 platinum prints in 28 scrapbooks were in the possession of his girlfriend, schoolteacher Molly Granger; by 1982, they made their way to the New-York Historical Society, which oversees them today. Friends called Bracklow “Daylight Bob” as he feared the dark and even went so far as to invent a device to develop photographs in a lighted room.
The image from 2021 shown here from Google Street View shows West Street between Charles and Perry Streets, where, in 2002 and 2004, veteran architect Richard Meier constructed these glassy residential towers. There’s a Belgian blocked lane in between them; this is Charles Lane, which long ago marked the northern footprint of Newgate Prison, whose image can be found on mosaic plaques of the Christopher Street IRT station.
Now let’s take a look at Robert Bracklow’s image of the same spot, #410 through #413 West Street, circa 1900. Charles Lane can be seen in the center, with a slant-roofed machine shop and blacksmith to its left and an iron works and boiler maker on the right. Some kids with a cart pulled by ole Dobbin can be seen on Charles Lane. You can zoom in tight on the image at the Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York website and see incredible detail.
My ambition in the world is to be spoken of in the same breath as other NYC street chroniclers such as Bracklow, Eugene Armbruster, Percy Loomis Sperr, Berenice Abbott, the unnamed photographers of the tax photos of 1940, and all the rest.
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1/31/22