Snapshots of the Past

Bootblacks, New York – Historic Print

Bootblacks, New York — historic photograph
Bootblacks, New York. 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

Few images capture their era like this historic photograph of Bootblacks, New York. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.

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Bootblacks, New York

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Shoeshine boys were a familiar sight on New York's sidewalks and in its park benches by the 1890s, and this 1896 view records the trade at close range. The record gives little beyond the title and date, so the picture is best read against its time. Boys who worked as bootblacks were often young newsboys and street workers who earned small change polishing shoes, and their stands and kits became a common subject for photographers documenting the city's working poor. The image comes from the Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs collection, one of the largest holdings of American urban views from this period.

Medium1 photographic print.
Notes1896
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,325 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-126293

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