A great site for old-time photos -- and you won't believe what you can see in the full-size versions viewable onsite

Onsite caption: "A vertiginous view of New York circa 1910. 'Broadway from Chambers Street -- City Hall Park, Post Office, Park Row, City Investing and Singer buildings.' 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company."

by Ken

By all means click to enlarge my web version of the reduced-size version of this 1910 photo, or look at it on the Shorpy site. But there you'll also find links to full-size and HD versions, and you really have to look at the full-size version. Scrolling around it, I'm simply astounding by the clarity and detail of this huge Lower Manhattan cityscape.

First, you need to understand the trick: that the photo is looking south on Broadway from Chambers Street. (How else would you even see City Hall Park?) Which means that to the right we're seeing west of Broadway, and the great view in the distance, west of Broadway, of the City Investing Building and behind it the Singer Building is particularly special for me, because these buildings both came down in 1968, and while I was living in the city by then, I don't have any recollection of them. (The Singer Building was an especially admired structure.)

This photo, and this NYC photo in particular, is another pass-along from my friend Paul (who most recently provided the Bob Guccione Jr. Byte column about Facebook). Along with the link, Paul wrote: "An ever growing collection of old American photos. Great source for PC wallpaper updates or just wading though hundreds and hundreds of old time shots."

A great source indeed, this Shorpy website.

Again, you owe it to yourself to look at the full-size version of this photo, "Cairo, Illinois -- Big Four Cafe" (35mm nitrate negative):


Or here's another shot of Lower Manhattan (ooh, look, the Singer Building again!) -- and, oh yes, the Brooklyn Bridge: "Brooklyn Bridge, East River and skyline" (5x7 inch dry plate glass negative; the full-size version is here).


By the way, based on detail contained in the photo, reader comments push the poster's "circa 1915" date steadily ahead to 1923-25. The comments can add considerably to the experience of the photos.

Obviously I'm drawn to the urban stuff, and in particular the NYC stuff, but that's a small fraction of what's on the site. I've only begun to scratch the surface, and already I'm afraid that Paul's note that the site is great for "just wading though hundreds and hundreds of old time shots" is going to turn into a prediction.

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