Photographic History of New York City {Photograph and Film Collection} on DVD

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Photographic History of New York City {Photograph and Film Collection} on DVD:
$9.97

DESCRIPTION In 1898, the modern City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then a separate city), the County of New York (which then included parts of the Bronx), the County of Richmond, and the western portion of the County of Queens.The opening of the subway in 1904, first built as separate private systems, helped bind the new city together. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. The Photographic History of New Yorks, provides a visual history of this great city, with over one-hundred {100} photographs and a superb collection of thirty-two {32} vintage films spanning the years 1898 to 1906.FORMAT FOR THIS ITEM: All files are in .jpeg, film clips are in.mpg format
This extensive film library includes the following:

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. 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. In 1901, new oil fields in Texas made gasoline affordable. That same year, mass production techniques were introduced into car manufacturing. These two factors would prove to be key developments in the rapid growth of the American automobile industry. 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.From a contemporary American Mutoscope and Biograph Company catalog: Starting a Skyscraper--New York--26 feet. Taken in the immense excavation for the foundation of the new Macy Building at the corner of Broadway and 34th Street, New York. An excellent study of modern American push and enterprise. 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. The \"Roosevelt\" served Peary on this expedition as well as the following one in 1908-1909. Sold numerous times to a variety of commercial concerns, the \"Roosevelt\" was abandoned to the elements on a mud flat in Cristobal, Panama in 1937, where she eventually rotted away. 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. It begins at one of the American Line piers (Pier 14 or 15, opposite Fulton Street) where an American Line steamer, either the \"New York\" or \"Paris,\" is seen docked Duration: 3:23

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
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)

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. According to a description in a 1901 newspaper, an estimated 1,500 pushcart peddlers were licensed to sell wares (primarily fish) in the vicinity of Hester Street. 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 1905The 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) 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. It was well known for it\'s excellent productions, and a number of celebrated actors and actresses worked there, among them Ellen Terry. The celebrated English actor Henry Irving made his first stage appearance in America at the Star. Duration: 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. The cameraman elevates his camera, going from street level to the roof. 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. The island is currently the site of a New York City penitentiary. 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. 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
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. 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. Duration: 4:00 (part 1), 4:32 (part 2), and 3:08 (part 3)

Pennsylvania Tunnel excavation / American Mutoscope and Biograph Company 1905
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

Sorting refuse at incinerating plant, New York City / Thomas A. Edison, Inc
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
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