American Cities Pre-1950

A photographic journey through American Cities, pre-1950.

Nashville, Tenn., from the statehouse, 1864. Photograph by George N. Barnard. Mathew Brady collection. The statehouse portico guarded by artillery in the foreground.

Smartly dressed couple seated on an 1886-model bicycle for two. The South Portico of the White House, Washington, D.C., in the background.

A military parade down the main street of Phoenix, Ariz., ca. 1888.

Panorama of Portland, Oreg., in 1890. Mount Hood in the background.

Man with a derby hat stands atop a mound of oyster shells outside the C. H. Pearson & Company oyster cannery, Baltimore. Workers bring wheel- barrows of shells from the factory to the heap. ca. 1890.

Boston's fisherman's wharf jammed with merchants and dock workers, ca. 1890.

"Terminal," by Alfred Steiglitz, 1892. Original lantern slide in the International Museum of Photography, New York.

Bearded Irish clam diggers and a matronly companion on a wharf in Boston, 1882.

Oyster fleet in Baltimore Harbor, Md., ca. 1885. Ships' masts dominate the foreground; buildings, horse-drawn wagons, and carts visible through them.

Horse-drawn wagons and carriages, an electric trolley car, and pedestrians congest a cobblestone Philadelphia street in 1897.

Two officials of the New York City Tenement House Department inspect a cluttered basement living room, ca. 1900.

Easter morning, 1900. New York City's Fifth Avenue bustling with horse-drawn traffic and two motor cars.

Residents in front of a dilapidated frame house in Kansas City, ca. 1900.

Chattanooga, Tenn. in time of war. Soldiers' tents and supply wagons beside the city building. 1864. Mathew Brady collection.

Children play ball in the street in front of typical housing with five rooms per family for $10 to $12 per month. San Francisco, ca. 1900.

Shoppers at the outdoor food market, 7th Street at Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.. Washington, D.C. View looking up 7th Street, ca. 1900.

Airshaft of a dumbbell tenement, New York City, taken from the roof, ca. 1900.

Hundreds of wooden barrels covering the docks at the resin yards, Savannah, Ga., 1903.

The Eighth Avenue trolley, New York City, sharing the street with horse-drawn produce wagon and an open automobile. Downtown, looking north. 1904.

Three gentlemen pass the time on a park bench in San Jacinto Plaza, El Paso, Tex., 1906.

The ruins of San Francisco, still smoldering after the 1906 earthquake, taken from the tower of the Union Ferry Building. Market Street between Sacramento and Third Streets.

Elegantly dressed New Yorkers on Fifth Avenue, Easter morning, 1906.

Treasury Department official, surrounded by packages of newly minted currency, counting and wrapping dollar bills. Washington, D.C., 1907.

The Saint Louis, Mo., waterfront crowded with steamboats at the start of President William H. Taft's inspection trip down the Mississippi River, Oct. 1909.

The ruins of Mills House and nearby buildings, Charleston, S.C. A shell-damaged carriage and the remains of a brick chimney in the foreground. 1865. Photograph by George N. Barnard.

Pedestrians on the upper deck promenade of Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, ca. 1910.

An Indian enclave in Albuquerque, N. Mex. Primitive shelters with modern city street behind. 1912.

Stevedores on a New York dock loading barrels of corn syrup onto a barge on the Hudson River. Photograph by Lewis Hine, ca. 1912.

Women assembling dolls on a long worktable at the Shrenhat Toy Company, Philadelphia, Oct. 1912.

Architects at their drafting tables at the Treasury Department Building, Washington, D.C., 1912.

A Pittsburgh factory where limousine bodies are built from wood, Oct. 1912.

Looking west on South Water Street, Chicago, crowded with horse-drawn wagons and motor trucks filled with produce for market, Apr. 1915.

Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., looking toward the Capitol from the Treasury Building. The Hotel Occidental advertises rooms with bath for $2 and up and modern Cadillac automobiles for rent for $3 per hour. ca. 1915.

Horse-drawn wagons line the narrow street in front of New Orleans' French Market, Jan. 1915.

Young boy tending freshly stocked fruit and vegetable stand at Center Market. Washington, D.C., Feb. 18,1915.

Shells of the buildings of Richmond, Va., silhouetted against a dark sky after the destruction by Confederates, 1865. Mathew Brady collection.

Policeman directing downtown Chicago traffic, ca. 1917.

The burned-out Monticello Hotel, Norfolk, Va., and fire apparatus frosted with icicles. The New Year's Day 1918 fire was thought to be the work of enemy agents.

Pickwick stages, counterparts of modern day buses, outside Union Station, Los Angeles, awaiting passengers bound for southern California, 1920.

Group of employees and several small boys in the littered alley entrance to a Baltimore garment factory, 1921.

Crowd of bathers on the Lake Michigan beach, Chicago, Ill., ca. 1925.

First-nighters posing for the camera outside the Warners' Theater before the premiere of "Don Juan" with John Barrymore. New York, Aug. 6, 1926.

Women shoppers at Mrs. Snyder's Candy Shop, South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 1927.

Workmen hand-dipping candles at the Saint Louis Candle and Wax Company, St. Louis, Mo., 1927.

Ticker tape and confetti floating onto the motorcade carrying the crew of the Bremen, and the crowds assembled to greet them. Broadway, New York, 1928.

Workman, perched on the end of a beam, bolting together the framework of the Empire State Building, New York City, 1930. Photograph by Lewis Hine.

Store-lined street, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1869. Photograph by William H. Jackson.

Children playing leap frog in a Harlem street, ca. 1930.

Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone. The storefront sign reads "Free Soup, Coffee and Doughnuts for the Unemployed." February 1931.

Refreshment stand in New York City where pineapple and orange nectar drinks are sold for 5 cents, July 1932.

Civil Works Administration (CWA) workmen cleaning and painting the gold dome of the Denver Capitol, 1934.

Rows of laundry outside a New York City apartment house. Posters below advertise coming attractions at the Roosevelt and Apollo Theaters. 1935.

New York City at night, ca. 1935.

Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, in winter, from the air. The Cuyahoga River winds through the flats. Dec. 1937.

A full house, seen from the rear of the stage, at the Metropolitan Opera House for a concert by pianist Josef Hofmann, Nov. 28, 1937.

Aerial view of a traffic jam, 14th Street and the Mall, Washington, D.C., Apr. 1937.

Aerial view of San Antonio. Tex., and the surrounding plains, Dec. 1939.

Panorama of Helena, Mont., in 1870. Photograph by William H. Jackson.

Unattended pushcart advertising "frankfurts" with sauerkraut or onions, ice-cold soft drinks, and pies for 5 cents on a rain-soaked wharf, New York City, ca. 1939.

Five steam locomotives, side by side, outbound from Chicago at dusk, ca. 1940.

Rows of frame houses in a hilly area of Pittsburgh, with the smoke-shrouded city in the background, ca. 1940.

Rear view of an "Okie's" car, passing through Amarillo, Tex., on its way west, 1941.

A huge vat of molten steel being poured into a mold at the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company, Pittsburgh, May 1942.

Mounds of coal, catwalks, and barges at the Milwaukee Western Fuel Company coal docks, Dec. 1942.

Aerial view of the tip of Manhattan looking like a miniature city, ca. 1942.

San Francisco's cable cars climbing the Powell Street hill, ca 1945.

The ferryboat Dongan Hills, filled with commuters, about to dock at a New York City pier, ca.1945.

Two street vendors taking time out for lunch at a makeshift table of wooden crates covered with newspaper. New York, Aug. 1946.

The weatherbeaten wharves between Piety and Desire Streets, New Orleans, La., August 1881. A group of men seated on the wharves, store-lined street in the background.

Grandmother amusing her young companion in the waiting room of the Greyhound Bus Station, New York City, July 1947.

The maze of livestock pens and walkways at Chicago's stockyards, ca. 1947.

The lion statues at the New York Public Library, with a mantle of snow during the record December 1948 snowfall.

The rain-swept Boston Fish Pier, crowded with fish carts, fishing boats, and workmen, ca. 1950.

The sprawling lights of Los Angeles and the surrounding area seen from Inspiration Point, Mount Lowe, ca. 1950.

Workmen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, uncrating "The Madonna of the Rosaries," a painting by Caravaggio on loan from the Austrian government, 1950.

Workman operating an industrial loom strung with hundreds of wool threads at Chicago's Olsen Rug Company, ca. 1950.

Four young members of the Madison Square Boy's Club rowing a boat in a rooftop pool, Manhattan skyscrapers in the background, Feb. 1950.

(Courtesy of the National Archives, via Denverpost)