Category Archives: Photos

Vintage Map of The Month: Diversity Breakdown

Map of the borough of Brooklyn: showing location and extent of racial colonies. Ohman Map Co. Inc. ca. 1910s. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

From Brooklyn Historical Society (click image to enlarge):

This month’s featured map was created by the Ohman Map Co., a New York-based map company located at 258 Broadway, in the early 1900s. One of only a handful of maps in the BHS Collection to show ethnic communities in Brooklyn, this map features various groups, from Europeans to African Americans to people of mixed heritage. It is clear from this map that early twentieth century Brooklyn was a diverse community of people, just as it is today.

Click here to view the map key.

Click here to view detail from the map (Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant).

Vintage Photo Of The Week: Utrecht Reformed

New Utrecht Dutch Reformed Church, ca. 1910; v1981.15.103, Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

From the desk of Cassie Mey, Project CHART intern: I am currently scanning the Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides of Brooklyn, 1890-1910. Many of the images in this collection reflect the end of an era when townships like New Utrecht, made up of old Dutch farmlands, were annexed into Brooklyn. Several weeks ago I came across this slide of the New Utrecht Dutch Reformed Church and was positively puzzled by the white pole in front of the church. I couldn’t believe that this was a pre-World War I image. I wondered how a radio antenna was present before there was radio.
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SLIDELUCK POTSHOW PHILADELPHIA II RECAP

[Text by Casey Kelbaugh]
[Photos by Chelsea Dejesus, Chelsea Rominski, Cierra Butler, Tara Robertson and Casey Kelbaugh]

One damp Leap Day evening, a few dozen hardy souls braved the freezing rain and converged at the Gershman Hall of the University of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia for Philly’s the second Slideluck Potshow.  The space was majestic, the slideshow diverse, engaging and set a fantastic soundtrack – all masterfully coordinated by SLPS Philly Director, Sam Gulino.

I traveled down by bus from the NYC, and after delicately tucking a Roast Pork Italian sandwich from Tony Luke’s into my belly, picked up my two little nephews from school.  We got home and spent the hour preceding the show preparing the best two Tortilla Españolas ever created by a 4- and 7-year old.  That being said, neither those, nor my brother’s Lentil and Walnut salad, were any match for a bunch of hungry art students.

Because of University regulations and the high concentration of minors, we decided to make the event itself “dry”, but that didn’t stop photographer Robin Odland – who’s documentation of Occupy Philadelphia was 7-year old Zach Ryan’s favorite slideshow – from sneaking in a cold bottle of Local 2, which he shared generously in characteristic Occupy form.

Five spirited women from the West Chester Photo Club trekked down to support their comrade Lauren Miller, who made a photo story about another member of the group who spent a liberating day trashing her wedding dress after a recent divorce.  To see a complete list of participating artists, click here.

The show was immediately followed by an afterparty at the nearby Perch Pub, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery.  A lively mix of photo students, faculty, and regular  Philly civilians gathered around a long table overlooking Broad Street and swapping stories while clinking glasses of Mary’s Maple Porter, E-IPA and Brooklyner Weisse.

It’s good to have a brother in the City of Brotherly Love, but it’s even better to know we have another show coming up on June 16th.  Stay tuned, folks!

 

Vintage Photo Of The Week: Ms. Ingalls

Miss Mary E. Ingalls, L.I.H.S. Museum attendant, ca.1912, v1972.1.1057; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

The woman pictured in this early twentieth-century photograph is staffing the museum gallery desk of what was then called the Long Island Historical Society. Much has changed since Miss Ingalls’s day: the Long Island Historical Society is now Brooklyn Historical Society, the building’s museum space looks very different, and the popular style of dress has relaxed a bit. Yet Brooklyn Historical Society still maintains a legacy of creative and engaging public exhibitions. Today, BHS visitors can explore such exhibits like Context\Contrast, which examines new architecture in New York’s historic districts, and Inventing Brooklyn: People, Places, Progress, a student-curated exhibit that traces the evolution of Brooklyn into the place we know today. Ms. Ingalls, no doubt, would approve.

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Vintage Photo Of The Week: The Flatbush Toll Booth

Flatbush Toll Booth, ca.1890, v1973.4.645; Postcard Collection, v1973.4; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

This photograph features a toll booth that stood on Flatbush Avenue between Fenimore Street and Winthrop Street in what is now Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Built in the 1850s by the Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Jamaica Plank Road Company, the booth was used to collect tolls on Old Flatbush Turnpike, one of the main thoroughfares connecting the town of Flatbush to the city of Brooklyn. The road’s plank surface made it easier for wagons and carriages to travel on the dirt road. When the road company went out of business in 1893, the booth was gifted to John Moore, the last Flatbush Road Commissioner, who placed it in his backyard in East Flatbush. Today, the booth stands in Prospect Park, near the Lefferts Historic House and the carousel.

Among the major investors in the Plank Road were members of the Lefferts family. You can learn more about them and their role in developing the town of Flatbush from An American Family Grows in Brooklyn, BHS’s new digital exhibit.

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Vintage Photo Of The Week: Lover’s Lane

Lovers’ Lane, ca.1887, v1972.1.1233; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

This week, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we share a photograph of Lovers’ Lane in Prospect Park. This image, ca. 1887, features a picturesque pathway, with sunlight softly drifting through the trees. When amateur photographer Walter H. Nelson took this picture, the Frederick Law Olmstead-designed park had been open for two decades. Olmstead intended Prospect Park to offer Brooklynites a secluded, naturalistic escape from the bustling urban center that Brooklyn was becoming – a quality that Nelson’s photograph captures perfectly.

In and out of Prospect Park, Brooklyn offers a number of striking places to walk with your loved ones. As a matter of fact, Brooklyn Historical Society was named as one of the best date spots in Brooklyn by Time Out New York. So celebrate love this week by strolling in a local park, visiting BHS, or taking in the sights of Brooklyn.

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Vintage Map of The Month: Ancient Heights

Copy of an ancient map in possession of a descendant of the Hannes or Han Bergen: whose house is located thereon. Teunis Bergen. 1864. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

From Brooklyn Historical Society (click image to enlarge):

This month’s featured map was created by the prolific Brooklyn surveyor Teunis G. Bergen, who copied it from an “ancient map.” According to Bergen, there was no date or surveyor’s name on the “ancient map,” but it was probably made before 1750. The map covers modern-day Brooklyn Heights and the Gowanus area and shows buildings and names of landowners. Please note that any writing on the map with an asterisk was added by Bergen and not found on the original map. If you’re interested in learning more about Bergen, the BHS archive has an amazing collection of his writings and maps.