Immigrants in New York at the turn of the 19th Century

In this blog entry I will showcase New York at the turn of the 19^th century through photographs.  Today New York is a major power centre and invokes images of success and wealth. However, the city during the early 20^th century there was intense poverty and depravity while the city expanded regardless.

Form: Halftone photomechanical prints ( Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials )
Extent: 1 postcard : b ; 14.62 x 9.57 cm.
Printed on image: “New York Life Building”
Publisher: Franz Huld
Year:1906
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-8e19-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Immigrants have built the city and nation. The caption in the photo above reads ‘bustle,hustle and strife’ in the city. Along with the success and fortune of the economy and its workers was also the misfortune and hardship of its ‘undesirables’. The photograph depicts a prosperous and striving city, however the caption warns about the rough underbelly of ‘New York Life’.

This a Cossack man, who emigrated from Russia in the 1920s is in search of a new life. He’s clothes are different from usual dress code of New York.His transition to social and cultural norms and those of New Yorkers would be massivly different. The ‘urban jungle’ would be a change from the wide, open plains of the Russian steppes which could prove a difficult adjustment.

• Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections
• Content: Photographs of immigrants by Augustus Sherman who was an immigration official, collected by William Williams, Commissioner of Immigration for the Port of New York at Ellis Island from 1902 to 1905 and 1909 to 1913.
• Form: Platinum prints ( Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials )
• Collector:Williams, William (1862-1947) 
• Photographer: Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) (1865-1925) 
Hyperlink:http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-79db-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

These cramped conditions are what most immigrant families lived in when they arrived to achieve the American dream. The slum-like conditions meant diseases such as cholera and dysentery were rampant and spread fast. Mothers and children often shelled nuts or partook in other activities in te home to  create more income. Children often worked at sewing or manufacturing other goods, while the mothers completed household chores when the men were working.

Title: Mrs. Rena shelling nuts with a neighbor
Extent: 4 7/8 X 6 3/4 in. 12.5 X 17.3 cm
Hine, Lewis Wickes (1874-1940) (Photographer)
Ownership : Romana Javitz Collection, Transferred from the Picture Collection 1991
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-a982-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

The Brooklyn Bridge which was built between 1860-1880 was mainly built by immigrants and many were killed doing the low-paid dangerous work of the ‘sandhog’. It is known as a piece of ‘American ingenuity’ and ‘scared object of the New York skyline’. The work conditions proved fatal for two dozen workers. In my research the workers that died were not commemorated only seen as a statistic. Thus proves that the urban transformation of the city took precedence over the lives of the people that built up the nation.

Extent: 1 photograph: gelatin silver print, matte, single weight paper; 8 x 10 in. untrimmed contact print
1935
Photographer: Berenice Abbott (1898-1991)
Sponsor: Federal Art Project (New York, N.Y.)
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-4f8a-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Biblioography:

1. Fig.1 Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. Huld’s Puzzle Series, no. 8-a. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-8e19-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
2. Fig.2 Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. [Cossack man from the steppes of Russia.] Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-79db-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
3. Fig.3 The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. Mrs. Rena shelling nuts with a neighbor Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-a982-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
4. Gavigan,Chun, SG DC, 2010. The Legal Tender of Gender: Law, Welfare and the Regulation of Women’s Poverty. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
5. History.com. 2010. Brooklyn Bridge. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.history.com/topics/brooklyn-bridge. [Accessed 15 October 15].
6. History.com Staff . 2010. Tennements. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.history.com/topics/tenements. [Accessed 15 October 15].
7. Featured image: Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. (1930). North (Hudson) River – Shore and skyline – Manhattan – [Midtown skyline – New skyscraper district of New York City.] Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-ae63-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99