Snapshots of the Past

[Court of tenement house, New York City] – Vintage Print

[Court of tenement house, New York City], [between 1900 and 1910] — historic photograph
[Court of tenement house, New York City], [between 1900 and 1910]. Historic photograph from the New York City collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

[Court of tenement house, New York City] comes to life in this historic photograph, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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[Court of tenement house, New York City]

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The courtyard of a New York City tenement, caught in a glass-plate negative made sometime between 1900 and 1910, shows the cramped light wells that defined housing for the city's working families in those years. The Detroit Publishing Company, which issued photographs of American cities and scenery for sale to a national market, produced this view, and the negative's inscribed "Emerson #4" points to the camera-and-plate system used in its work. Tenement courtyards like this one were narrow, shaded shafts lined with fire escapes and back windows, where laundry hung and children played. Reformers of the period often used such images to press for air, sunlight and sanitation in the buildings.

Created / published[between 1900 and 1910]
Medium1 negative : glass ; 8 x 10 in.
GenreDry plate negatives.
NotesTitle from jacket. Emerson # 4" on negative. Detroit Publishing Co. no. 043271. Gift; State Historical Society of Colorado; 1949."
SubjectsTenement houses. Courtyards.United States--New York (State)--New York.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection
Original scan973 × 791 px
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-DET-70202

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