From Library Journal
Arranged thematically, the photographs showcased here are but a sampling from about 22,000 images produced by the Byron Company's New York City commercial studio over a 50-year period. And for 40 of those years, Mrs. Joseph Byron oversaw the photo-printing work for what is usually thought of as a father-and-son enterprise. The Museum of the City of New York acquired the negatives and prints when the firm closed in 1942. Three earlier books on the Byron Collection failed to show the breadth of the collection, which was recently revealed during an archiving project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. With their large-format cameras, the Byrons went beyond the sheltered world of the upper classes in their elegant houses and ocean liners. Also included are documentary images of Lower East Side tenements, recently arrived steerage passengers, and the African American neighborhood west of Columbus Circle. The reproduction quality here is excellent, and the interpretive captions lend meaning to these definitive views of early 20th-century New York City. Highly recommended for photography, architecture, and urban studies collections.AKathleen Collins, Bank of America Archives, San Francisco
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Publisher comments
Historic Photos Capture Early Twentieth Century New York
Travel back with us to turn-of-the-century New York, when the raucous spirit of vaudeville and burlesque colored the stage, Turkish baths were all the rage, and city’s newly wealthy industrialists fashioned grand palaces that rivaled those of European royalty. Pomegranate’s new book Gotham Comes of Age unveils 170 images selected by the Museum of the City of New York from the vast collection of the New York-based Byron Company photographic studio (in business from 1892 to 1942). In addition to capturing the high-society high jinks of New York’s most gaudy and profligate era, Gotham Comes of Age also presents many views of the city’s daily life: skaters in Central Park, tenement dwellers seeking fresh air on the stoops, and today’s landmarks—such as the Church of St. John the Divine and the original Times building—in the early stages of construction. Together, the photographs in Gotham document the maturation of a great metropolis and offer an absorbing and evocative perspective on the lives and pursuits of yesterday’s New Yorkers. Gotham Comes of Age is a companion to an Spring 1999 exhibition by the Museum of the City of New York, the first major exposition of the Byron Company’s work in over forty years.
Travel back with us to turn-of-the-century New York, when the raucous spirit of vaudeville and burlesque colored the stage, Turkish baths were all the rage, and city’s newly wealthy industrialists fashioned grand palaces that rivaled those of European royalty. Pomegranate’s new book Gotham Comes of Age unveils 170 images selected by the Museum of the City of New York from the vast collection of the New York-based Byron Company photographic studio (in business from 1892 to 1942). In addition to capturing the high-society high jinks of New York’s most gaudy and profligate era, Gotham Comes of Age also presents many views of the city’s daily life: skaters in Central Park, tenement dwellers seeking fresh air on the stoops, and today’s landmarks—such as the Church of St. John the Divine and the original Times building—in the early stages of construction. Together, the photographs in Gotham document the maturation of a great metropolis and offer an absorbing and evocative perspective on the lives and pursuits of yesterday’s New Yorkers. Gotham Comes of Age is a companion to an Spring 1999 exhibition by the Museum of the City of New York, the first major exposition of the Byron Company’s work in over forty years.
