The Life of a City:
Early Films of New York,
1898-1920
(these films are SILENT films)
The Life of a City:
Early Films of New York,
1898-1906
Arrival of immigrants, Ellis Island: American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, 1906 Depicts scenes at the Immigration Depot
and a nearby dock on Ellis Island. Appears to show, first, a group of immigrants
lined up to board a vessel leaving the island, then another group arriving
at the island and being directed off of the dock and into the Depot by a
uniformed official. Duration: 3:27 |
At the foot of the Flatiron American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, 1903. This street level view is of the Broadway side of the Flatiron,
or Fuller Building, near the narrow north corner. Filmed on a very windy
day, pedestrians of various descriptions are seen passing by the camera,
clutching hats and skirts against the wind. According to some New York City
historians, this corner was known as the windiest corner of the city, and
in the era of the long skirt, standing on it was considered a good vantage
point for a glimpse of a lady's ankle. Policemen would chase away such loungers
from the 23rd Street corner, giving rise to the expression "twenty-three
skidoo." Duration: 2:19 |
Automobile parade Thomas A. Edison, Inc. This may be the
first annual automobile parade, held on November 4, 1899 in downtown Manhattan.
At least ten different makes and models are seen, including electric and
steam powered machines. Only three years earlier, in 1896, Henry Ford, Charles
Brady King, Alexander Winton and Ransom Eli Olds had each introduced their
gasoline cars. In 1900, the first National Auto Show was held at Madison
Square Garden and the favorites were the electrics and the steamers. Duration:
1:52 |
Bargain day, 14th Street, New York American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company. The film shows hundreds of tightly packed people crowding
into the front door of the Rothschild Co. 5 and 10 cent store. They are so
closely packed it is difficult to tell one from another. The view is from
across the street, looking down from the 2nd floor. Duration: 1:22 |
Beginning of a skyscraper American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company 1902.The scene is an excavation site in New York City. A large group
of workmen with picks and shovels are digging. Carts drawn by pairs of horses
can be seen emerging from the smoke in the background. Taken in the immense
excavation for the foundation of the new Macy Building at the corner of Broadway
and 34th Street, New York. Duration: 0:25 |
Broadway & Union Square, New York American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company. This short film shows two horse-drawn streetcars, one
approaching the camera and the other heading away. Passengers can be seen
boarding and getting off of the crowded cars. Duration: 0:22 |
Buffalo Bill's wild west parade American Mutoscope and
Biograph Company. The film shows a parade down Fifth Avenue, New York. In
the foreground many children, both black and white, can be seen following
alongside the parade. The participants in the parade include cowboys, Indians,
and soldiers in the uniform of the United States Cavalry on horseback and
riding horse-drawn coaches. Buffalo Bill can be seen on horseback, lifting
his hat to the crowd Duration: 1:52 |
Delivering newspapers American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company. The film shows a group of about fifty preadolescent boys running
and crowding around a one-horse paneled newspaper van that pulls up in the
foreground of the picture. On the side of the van is a sign reading "New
York World." As they gather around the rear of the vehicle, a fight breaks
out between two of the boys. The film ends as the crowd forms around the
two fighters. Probably filmed at Union Square. Duration: 0:53 |
Departure of Peary and the "Roosevelt" from New York
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. The camera pans to show the schooner
"Roosevelt" docked at a covered pier on the Hudson River on Manhattan's west
side. Then, from a camera position on board, men in straw hats and fashionably
dressed ladies are seen boarding the ship. Next, the famous polar explorer
Robert Peary appears on the gangway in a dark jacket, mustache and straw
hat. He tips his hat, consults his watch, then, just before the film ends,
motions to order the departure. On this expedition he achieved the "farthest
north" record, but failed to reach the North Pole. Duration: 4:14 |
Skyscrapers of New York City, from the North River / Thomas
A. Edison, Inc. 1903. Filmed from a moving boat, the film depicts the Hudson
River (i.e., North River) shoreline and the piers of lower Manhattan beginning
around Fulton Street and extending to Castle Garden and Battery Park. In
the film Panorama of Sky Scrapers and Brooklyn Bridge From the East River.
Together they comprise a sweep around the southern tip of Manhattan, from
Fulton Street on the Hudson to the Brooklyn Bridge. Duration: 3:23 |
Emigrants i.e. immigrants landing at Ellis Island / Thomas
A. Edison, Inc.1903. The film opens with a view of the steam ferryboat "William
Myers," laden with passengers, approaching a dock at the Ellis Island Immigration
Station. The vessel is docked, the gangway is placed, and the immigrant
passengers are seen coming up the gangway and onto the dock, where they cross
in front of the camera. Duration: 2:20 |
Excavating for a New York foundation / American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company 1903. The scene is an excavation pit at an unidentified
New York City construction site. A crew of six men can be seen shoveling
dirt into a four-wheeled wooden cart. Then a full cart is slowly lifted out
of the pit to street level by a steam-powered crane. These carts are similar
in design to those shown dumping rubble at the end of the film New York City
Dumping Wharf. Advertisements and campaign posters can be seen on the exposed
wall of the building in the background. Duration: 2:28 |
Funeral of Hiram Cronk / American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company 1905. The film shows a city thoroughfare lined with crowds of people
watching a military parade. Duration: 3:51 |
Interior N.Y. subway, 14th St. to 42nd St. / American
Mutoscope and Biograph Company 1905. PART 1 PART 2
The camera platform was on the front of a New York subway train following
another train on the same track. Lighting is provided by a specially constructed
work car on a parallel track. At the time of filming, the subway was only
seven months old, having opened on October 27, 1904. The ride begins at 14th
Street (Union Square) following the route of today's east side IRT, and ends
at the old Grand Central Station, built by Cornelius Vanderbuilt in 1869.
The Grand Central Station in use today was not completed until 1913. Duration:
3:37 (part 1) and 2:41 (part 2) |
Sorting refuse at incinerating plant, New York City /
Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 1903. The subject is a group of about thirty men and
boys who are sorting combustible refuse, mostly paper, and stuffing it into
large sacks. In the background a man in a hat with an emblem on it can be
seen unloading trash from a large wagon. Location may be the New York City
Sanitation Department's East 17th Street facility, or possibly the incinerator
at West 47th Street on the Hudson River. Duration: 1:42 |
Move on / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 1903. Filmed in New York's
Lower East Side, the scene is a street where several pushcart vendors have
gathered to sell their goods. In the foreground are fruit and vegetable carts.
An elevated railroad track crosses over the street in the background. As
the film progresses, two policemen can be seen heading up the street toward
the camera and ordering all of the vendors to move. One of the policemen
approaches the camera waving his nightstick, and the cart in the foreground
begins moving. The film ends with a closeup of the policeman scolding the
vendor. Duration: 1:42 |
New York City "ghetto" fish market / Thomas A. Edison,
Inc.1903. The view, photographed from an elevated camera position, looks
down on a very crowded New York City street market. Rows of pushcarts and
street vendors' vehicles can be seen. The precise location is difficult to
ascertain, but it is certainly on the Lower East Side, probably on or near
Hester Street, which at the turn of the century was the center of commerce
for New York's Jewish ghetto. Located south of Houston Street and east of
the Bowery, the ghetto population was predominantly Russian, but included
immigrants from Austria, Germany, Rumania and Turkey. Duration:
2:53. |
New York City dumping wharf / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 1903.
The film shows a wharf where a barge is being loaded with trash from two-wheeled,
horse-drawn wagons. The trash is dumped off the edge of the pier onto the
barge, where men with shovels are spreading the piles of debris. The camera
pans left to the next barge, where four-wheeled carts are shown dumping
excavation rubble. Probably filmed on the East River, this is one of several
New York City Sanitation Department dumping wharves in operation at the time.
Duration: 1:21. |
Opening of new East River bridge, New York / Thomas A.
Edison, Inc.1903. The first view is from the roadway of the Williamsburg
Bridge on the day of the opening. Close-ups of the parading dignitaries and
members of the press are seen. From another camera position, taken over the
heads of the crowd, buildings around the waterfront are seen, and the
dignitaries, led by a standard bearer again pass the camera. The banner reads
"MAYOR." Next, a covered platform, draped in flag bunting is shown, where
the people previously seen have gone to begin the ceremonies. There is a
brass band playing in front of the platform. Next, an unidentified speaker,
probably Mayor Seth Low, can be seen addressing the crowd. Duration:
2:28. |
Opening the Williamsburg Bridge / American Mutoscope and
Biograph Company 1904. The film was shot on the roadway of the newly constructed
Williamsburg Bridge. The first people to come into view are press photographers
carrying large wooden "box" camera. Next, a parade of dignitaries and military
representatives, accompanied by members of the press, is photographed passing
the camera position led by a standard bearer whose banner reads "MAYOR" .
The mayor of New York was Seth Low, a lame-duck at the time of filming, having
been defeated in November, 1903 by George B. McClellan. The Williamsburg
Bridge, a combined cantilever and suspension bridge, crosses the East River
from Delancey and Clinton Streets, Manhattan, to Roebling and S. 5th Streets,
Williamsburg. Built at a cost of twelve million dollars, it held two lanes
of roadway, two "L" tracks, four trolley tracks, and two promenades. It was
the largest suspension bridge in the world at the time. Duration: 0:55
|
Statue of Liberty / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. A three-quarter
front view of the Statue of Liberty. The statue was erected twelve years
earlier, in 1886. Duration: 0:48 |
Panorama from Times Building, New York / American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company 1905. The view is from the top of the then newly-erected
Times Building, at a height of approximately twenty stories. The film opens
with a vertical pan, going from the street below up to the sky. The photographer
then makes a pan to the north over the tops of the buildings from Bryant
Park, south of 42nd Street (behind the New York Public Library) up 6th Avenue
to the Hippodrome Theatre at 43rd Street 1866. A marquee on the theater reads
"A Yankee Circus On Mars." Duration: 2:04 |
Star Theatre / American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
1902. Using time-lapse photography, the film shows the demolition of the
famous Star Theatre. Judging from the various exposures, the work must have
gone on for a period of approximately thirty days. The theater opened in
1861 as "Wallack's Theatre," and was re-christened the "Star" in 1883. IDuration:
1:55 |
Panorama of Flatiron Building / American Mutoscope and
Biograph Company 1903. This shows a view looking south from Madison Square,
across the intersection of Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and Twenty-third Street,
to the famous Fuller (or "Flatiron") Building. Designed by D.H. Burnham and
Company, the Fuller Building is an important early skyscraper and a New York
City landmark. Known as the first great steel-framed building, the exterior
of the lower three stories is stone, with the remainder clad in terra cotta.
Twenty-one stories high, it is considered the first tall building erected
north of city hall. Its completion in 1902 marked the beginning of New York
City's first skyscraper era. Duration: 1:00. |
Panorama of Riker's Island, N.Y. / Thomas A. Edison, Inc.1903.
The film was photographed from a boat going around Riker's Island. Located
on the East River north of Hell Gate between the Bronx and Queens, Riker's
Island was the site of a massive New York City landfill operation at the
time of the filming (originally eighty-seven acres, by 1939 the size of the
island had increased to four hundred acres). The film includes scenes of
heavy equipment at work, including pile drivers constructing the seawall
and steam shovels unloading rubbish from barges. On one of the steam shovels,
a sign reading "Water Front Improvement Co., 220 Broadway, New York" can
be distinguished. Duration: 2:15 |
Panorama water front and Brooklyn Bridge from East River
/ Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 1903. This film depicts the East River shoreline
and the piers of lower Manhattan starting at about Pier 5 (the New York Central
Pier) opposite Broad Street, and extending to the Mallory Line steamship
piers just south of Fulton Street and the Brooklyn Bridge. The film begins
with shots of canal boats or barges (from the Erie Canal via the Hudson River)
docked at and around Coenties Slip. As the film progresses, the New York
Produce Exchange located at Bowling Green, Manhattan, with its distinct tower,
comes into view in the background. Between here and the Wall Street ferry,
there follows in order of appearance: steam tugs, a wooden hull barkentinewith
box barges alongside, a docked iron hull sailing ship, probably British,
an ocean steamer with yards on the foremast, a derrick lighter laden with
barrels docked at the end of a pier, and a fruit steamer. In the Wall Street
Ferry slip (between Piers 15 and 16) there is a Wall St., Manhattan-to-Montague
St., Brooklyn, double-ended steam commuter boat 2896. The ferry is visible
immediately before a shot of the large advertising billboards on Pier 16.
The film next shows the Ward Line piers (J.E. Ward & Co., New York and
Cuba Steamship Co.), a Pennsylvania Railroad tug, a derrick lighter, and
the Mallory Line piers. A Mallory Line steamer can be seen on the south side
of one of the Mallory Piers. The camera begins panning out into the East
River after passing pier 20, catching the fog bell at the end of pier 21.
A car float is visible passing under the Brooklyn Bridge. The pan follows
the line of the Brooklyn Bridge eastward to Brooklyn Heights, where the Hotel
Margaret (tall building in background) is visible just before the end of
the film. This film continues the view begun in the film Sky Scrapers of
New York City From the North River. Together they comprise a sweep around
the southern tip of Manhattan, from Fulton Street on the Hudson to the Brooklyn
Bridge. Duration: 2:28 |
The skyscrapers of New York / American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company 1906. PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 This melodrama
was filmed during the actual construction of a skyscraper in New York City,
and includes several scenes of real work crews: a line of bricklayers, a
man heating rivets in a forge, riveters assembling steel girders, men astride
the steel framework maneuvering and setting a girder in place , and a group
of men descending on a crane line. The story involves a construction foreman
who fires one of his crew for fighting, which leads the disgruntled employee
to steal. He causes the blame to be put on the foreman, who is finally exonerated
when the thief is exposed. All of this conflict is woven in and around the
actual construction of the building as the work is in progress. There is
even one scene of a hand-to-hand fight between the foreman and the villain
that takes place on the unprotected ledge of the steel framework of the building.
Some New York City landmarks seen in the film include Union Square (between
Broadway and 4th Avenue, 14th-17th Street), and the Everett House, opposite
the northeast corner of the square at 17th St. and 4th Avenue (part 1). The
film includes the original AM&B title frames at head of film.Duration:
4:00 (part 1), 4:32 (part 2), and 3:08 (part 3) |
Pennsylvania Tunnel excavation / American Mutoscope and
Biograph Company 1905. This film employs a 180-degree pan shot of the excavation
site of New York's Pennsylvania Station, and includes shots of the narrow-gauge
train used to haul debris from the tunnels under construction. Work began
in 1904, and when completed in September of 1910 the station would span from
31st to 33rd Streets, and from 7th to 8th Avenue, an area of approximately
300,000 square feet. It would connect a massive rail tunnel system, bringing
the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Railroads under the Hudson River and the Long
Island Railroad under the East River to a terminal in the center of Manhattan,
accommodating a network of twenty-seven tracks. Duration: 3:22 |
A perilous proceeding / American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company 1902. The film follows a group of approximately ten men who are suspended
on the cable of a large crane atop a building under construction. As the
men are lifted over the site and gradually lowered, they wave to the camera.
Duration: 1:19 |
Rare Early Photographs Of New York
City
The City Hall, New York City c1900 |
Post Office, New York City c1910 |
Herald Square, New York City 1903 |
In winter quarters, New York City 1903 |
Shoppers on Sixth Avenue, New York City c1903 |
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
A Characteristic sidewalk newstand sic, New York City c1900 |
Gutter toy merchant, New York City, A c1903 |
Brooklyn Bridge, New York City c1903 |
Gutter toy merchant, New York City, A c1910 |
Exterior of tenement, New York City c1903 |
New York City c1900 |
Court of tenement, New York City c1900 |
Exterior of tenement, New York City c1900 |
Hotel McAlpin, New York City c1900 |
Wilcox and Gibbs Building, New York City c1900 |
Nassau Street, New York City c1905 |
Flatiron Building, Broadway and Fifth Av., New York City 1905 |
Morningside Park, New York City, N.Y. 1908 |
34th St. Thirty-fourth Street National Bank, New York City c1900 |
Mills House No. 1, New York City c1905 |
Old boats beached to rot away, New York City c1900 |
Where the subway is an elevated, New York City 1905 |
New York University, New York City c1904 |
Santa Claus on Broadway, New York City c1903 |
Whitehall Building, New York City c1900 |
Stairway and hall, tenement, New York City c1900 |
Ladies' dept., 34th St. Thirty-fourth Street National Bank, New York
City c1900 |
New Municipal Building, New York City c1910 |
Broad Street, New York City 1905 |
City Hall, New York 1904 |
New York City, interior E 2 (living room) c1900 |
Club house, exterior, New York City c1900 |
Interior, upper hall, New York City c1900 |
Director's room, 34th St. Thirty-fourth Street National Bank, New York
City c1900 |
Lawn tennis, park c1890 |
A Dining room, probably in clubhouse, New York City c1900 |
Interior, living room, New York City |
St. Bartholomew's Parish House, New York City c1900 |
Manhattan Hotel, New York City c1900 |
Subway entrance and exit kiosks, New York City 1905 |
City Hall, New York, N.Y. c1903 |
Metropolitan Opera House, New York City c1905 |
President's room, 34th St. National Bank, New York City c1900 |
Library in clubhouse, New York City c1900 |
Library in clubhouse, New York City c1900 |
General view looking towards front, 34th St. Thirty-fourth Street National
Bank, New York City c1900 |
General view looking towards front, 34th St. Thirty-fourth Street National
Bank, New York City c1900 |
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