Idle, circa 1887, V1972.1.1253; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.I couldn’t help but chuckle when a colleague pointed out this photograph from our collections. I had so many questions. Who is this young woman? Why is she strumming a broom like a banjo? And why did the photographer title this work “Idle”? That’s the fun part about working in a historical archive—stumbling upon something surprising from the past and trying to make sense of it today. Whoever this…
[Blossoms], circa 1975, V1990.2.219; Donald L. Nowlan Brooklyn collection, ARC.120; Brooklyn Historical Society.If you missed the annual Sakura Matsuri, Brooklyn Botantic Garden’s cherry blossom festival, it’s not too late to experience the last of the blooming cherry blossoms in Brooklyn. According to the BBG website, the cherry blossoms bloom from late March or early April until mid-May. There are 26 different species of flowering cherries at the park, and there is no time where they all bloom at once. Instead, they all…
Fulton Ferry in Horse Car Days, circa 1890, V1981.15.135; Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides, V1981.15; Brooklyn Historical Society.Mayor Bill de Blasio recently proposed a streetcar service that would connect Queens and Brooklyn. It’s been over 60 years since Brooklyn had a streetcar service; the last streetcar line discontinued in 1956. Brooklyn operated its first light rail line in 1854. Before there was an electric-powered streetcar, there were horsecars, which were horse-drawn cars pulled over embedded tracks.…
[Prospect Park trumpeter], circa 1975, V2008.013.81; Lucille Fornasieri Gold photographs, 2008.013; Brooklyn Historical Society.Lucille Fornasieri Gold’s photographs are some of my favorites at Brooklyn Historical Society. Every photograph has an element of surprise, and genuine moments between photographer and subject. Gold began photographing street scenes with her Leica camera beginning in 1968 while her children were in school. She continued to photograph Brooklyn throughout her entire life. Her photographs are one of…
[Traffic congestion], circa 1920, v1973.5.1950; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC.202; Brooklyn Historical Society.The U.S. Census Bureau revealed some not-so-surprising news recently that New York City is growing, particularly the outer boroughs. This past year alone, Brooklyn grew by 16,000 inhabitants. City planners are estimating that New York City will reach the nine million mark by 2040. This is largely due to more people moving to the city and fewer people leaving. Mayor de Blasio has said of…
[Taken Friday morning May 17, 1974 day after fire at 130 Montague Street.], 1974, V1974.9.471; John D. Morrell photographs collection, v1974.9; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week depicts the damages from a fire that took place on Montague Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in the spring of 1974. In a New York Times article published the day after the fire, there were considerable damages to the 130 Montague Street brownstone. The three-alarm fire left six families homeless, and one…
[Namm Store interior], 1898, V1972.1.743; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week depicts the A.I. Namm & Son department store interior, located at 450 - 458 Fulton Street in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1898. Adolph I. Namm was a Polish immigrant with an embroidery and upholstery business in Manhattan. In 1885, he moved his business in Brooklyn, and by 1891 he opened a new store at 452 Fulton. At the time, that stretch of…
[Operation Clean Sweep Demonstration on Sidewalk], 1962, v1989.22.17; Bob Adelman photographs of Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) demonstrations, v1989.22; Brooklyn Historical Society.We were sad to hear about the recent passing of photographer and activist Bob Adelman, who extensively documented the civil rights movement in Brooklyn and the southern United States, as well as pivotal historical moments like the 1963 March on Washington. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Far Rockaway, Queens, Mr. Adelman was a…
[Scouts at Campsite], 1912, V1981.284.636; Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, ARC.136; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week depicts a group of scouts at a campsite in Forest Park in Queens, during the spring of 1912. A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article printed a week before this photograph was taken describes Forest Park as the site for a scout rally, skills test, and program. “Next Saturday, the individual scouts who are ready for their firebuilding test will be examined by the scout masters on some…
[Brooklyn Photographs: Prospect Park-lake], ca. 1975, V1990.2.176; Donald L. Nowlan Brooklyn collection, ARC.120; Brooklyn Historical Society.Spring is my favorite season in Brooklyn, so the early spring-like temperatures lately make me excited for the warmer months ahead. What excites you about springtime in Brooklyn? Personally, I can’t wait to spend time in Prospect Park, reading and riding my bike. With that in mind, the photo of the week depicts the reservoir in Prospect Park in early spring, sometime around 1975.…
[Flatbush car barn], ca. 1885, v1972.1.830; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week depicts a car barn that once stood at Flatbush and Tilden Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, sometime around 1885. The car barn housed horse-drawn trolleys that carried passengers between Fulton Ferry, Flatbush, Coney Island, and other areas of Brooklyn. Also pictured is James Monell (the small boy with pail), who was the original owner of this…
[Three men and a boy standing on sidewalk in Brooklyn] 1880 ca, v1974.7.1; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week depicts Adrian Martense (center) posing with a box camera, and two gentlemen, Henry K. Sherril and HMS Sherril. Eddie Tepper (on tricycle) is pictured in the background. This photograph was taken sometime around 1880 in an unidentified location in Brooklyn.Self-portraits were surprisingly common in the early days of photography as a means of exploration…
[Virginia Burton as a child holding a cat] 1910 ca,V1981.283.70; Burton family papers and photographs, ARC.217; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week depicts Virginia Burton as a young girl around 1910, holding a cat in front of her family’s home at 436 Lafayette Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. I think this photograph is particularly charming because of the way Virginia is gently holding her cat and the addition of the children (possibly her siblings) peering out of the third floor…
[View of Fulton Street.], 1959, V1974.9.13; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005; Brooklyn Historical Society.After we posted this image of the Majestic Theater, taken in 1968, and described it’s transformation into today’s BAM Harvey Theater, we heard another story behind the historic Brooklyn landmark. We contacted Shay Wafer, Executive Director at 651 Arts, to fill in the details about this fascinating story:In 1988, the Majestic Theater Advisory Committee, a group of community leaders in the arts and representatives…
[View of Love Lane (south side.) #35 Love Lane (right) and #37 Love Lane (left.)], 1958, V1974.4.170; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005; Brooklyn Historical Society.With the Valentine’s Day holiday right around the corner, the photo of the week depicts a view of the south side of Love Lane in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Love Lane is a one block mews that connects Henry Street to Hicks Street. Dating back to the Revolutionary War, Love Lane divided the estates of the DeBevoise and Pierrepont families…
[79 Willow St. east corner of Pineapple Street, Brooklyn 1922.],1922, V1974.32.98; Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks, V1974.32; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week depicts 79 Willow Street, which stands on the southeast corner of Pineapple Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, around 1922. This house was torn down only a few years after the picture was taken, and by 1927, the large apartment building that still stands on that corner today had taken its place. In the 1970s,…
[View of Fulton Street.], 1959, V1974.9.13; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week depicts a view of Fulton Street, including the Majestic Theater, in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1959. The Majestic Theater opened in 1904 and was known for a variety of theatrical performances, including opera, musicals, and vaudeville. By 1942, the Majestic Theater became a first-run movie theater, and later a church. Not long after this photograph was taken (in 1968), the…
[Farm field, Brooklyn], 1880, V1974.7.9; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Historical SocietyIt wasn’t so long ago that what is today the borough of Brooklyn was a center of agricultural production. Kings County was once one of the leading vegetable producers for over 250 years, as late as 1880. It took just twenty years for areas in outer-borough Brooklyn to shift from agricultural to entirely urban residential between 1890 and 1910. To learn more about the history of agriculture in Brooklyn, be…
Mariah Ramus, circa 1860, V1978.174.37; Ramus family papers and photographs, 1978.174; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week is an example of an ambrotype, a wet collodian photographic process that produces positive images on glass that is backed with black paper or velvet. The ambrotype was introduced in the 1850s and patented by James Ambrose Cutting. This process quickly gained popularity and surpassed the daguerreotype as the preferred photographic process. Ambrotypes were less expensive, quicker, and…
[Boxing and Labeling Department], circa 1915, V1988.35.8; Eberhard Faber Pencil Company collection, ARC.028; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photo of the week depicts female workers around 1915 in the boxing and labeling department of the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. The company began as a U.S. subsidiary branch of A.W. Faber Company in 1849 and is the oldest pencil manufacturing company in the United States. The original office was located at 133 William Street in Manhattan.…