POTW: William Koch Glass Plate Negatives

[Two hunters in a field of haystacks], circa 1900, V1985.4.1; William Koch glass plate negatives; Brooklyn Historical Society.

One strength of Brooklyn Historical Society’s collections is the 19th century photographs. There are hundreds of photographs from this period that glimpse at Brooklyn’s pastoral past. The photo of the week by William Koch is one of my favorites from this period. Two hunters are depicted in a field of haystacks in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, sometime in the late 1890s. There is so much to love about this photograph including the expression of the man in the foreground and the action pose of the man in the background. The quality of light and sharpness of the subjects are truly remarkable considering this photograph likely required anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes of exposure time.

This photograph comes from the William Koch glass negatives collection comprised of 66 photographs from about 1890 to right around 1925. William “Billy” Koch was an amateur photographer in Brooklyn and owned a tavern named Billy Cook’s Saloon in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn. His photographs display houses, farms, and street scenes, as well as informal portraits of groups and individuals outdoors. You can see more photographs from this collection, including two additional photographs of the hunters, on our online image gallery.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. library@brooklynhistory.org