Snapshots of the Past

[New York City]: Horse-drawn ash cart – Vintage Print

[New York City]: Horse-drawn ash cart, c1896. — historic photograph
[New York City]: Horse-drawn ash cart, c1896.. Historic photograph from the Horses 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

A window into the past: [New York City]: Horse-drawn ash cart, preserved in this historic photograph. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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[New York City]: Horse-drawn ash cart

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This photograph shows a horse-drawn ash cart on a New York City street around 1896, when the city was still relying almost entirely on horses to haul household coal ash and street refuse. The image is credited to Elizabeth Alice Austen, a Staten Island photographer known for candid pictures of everyday urban life in the 1890s. Those years also brought reform to the city's cleaning system under Colonel George Waring, whose department aimed to make street work more orderly and visible. Notice the heavy cart, the harness, and the rough cobbled roadway, which show how dependent city life was on animal power before motor trucks became common.

Created / publishedc1896.
Medium1 photographic print.
SubjectsPhoto copyrighted by Elizabeth Alice Austen. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Caption card tracings: Carts...; Street cleaning; NY--NYC--Misc.--1896; NY--NYC--Views--1896; Carts & wagons; Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,225 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-135781

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