Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Hot in the city (1910-1915 style)

The Library of Congress has a photostream at Flickr that includes archival photos of Manhattan. Given the diabolical heat of late, these seemed approriate to post; to see how those before us coped with the heat.



Caption reads, "Fountain, Madison Square Park on a hot day." (Where's Shake Shack?)

No mention where this was taken. Just a note about a man cooling his head on a hot day.

Caption reads, "Asleep in Battery Park on hot day." (Maybe they're just waiting for the new Apple iPhonograph to be unveiled.)


Caption reads: "Milk House, Tompkins Sq.; hot day."

Meanwhile, I wouldn't mind this scene in Union Square for a few minutes right about now...


2 comments:

JOR said...

Good job, EV Grieve -- and I like the new format of your blog.

I don't really see all the complaining of NYers, especially them yunnies, today. Just think that back in those days, the men wore suits , and the women wore long dresses and gloves -- you don't see anyone wearing flip-flops, sandals, or shorts or mini-skirts. And in the '70's and '80's not all the subways (I think -- I was still young to remember back then) did not have good, if any, air conditioning systems.

And you can see from these pictures that they had some sense of community, unlike today, which, if you ever go to the parks, everyone is so isolated and insular amongst their own group.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the comment, John. Excellent points all around. I really notice the lack of community -- the younger generation seems to think community means talking on the cellphone or listening to an iPod in the park.
Not to sound like an old fart or anything...