Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
Vintage photos of:
March 1910. Buffalo, New York. "Antonio Martina, 53 Carolina Street. 11 years old last summer. Attends School No. 1. He and a 13-year-old sister worked in sheds of Ellis-Canning Factory, Brant, N.Y., snipping beans at 1 cent a pound. Left for the country in May, returned late in September, losing about 7 weeks of school. He sells papers reluctantly." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Joe Manning again, from the Lewis Hine Project. I have completed my story of Antonio (Anthony) Martina. He was adored by his grandson, whom I interviewed. He worked for the Iroquois Gas Company for 45 years, and lived a long time. You can see my entire story, including many photos of Anthony and his family, at this link.
http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2015/01/25/anthony-martina/
Is his right arm longer and right hand larger than his left? Would this be due to his snipping beans all day, probably with his right hand?
Joe Manning again. I just talked with Anthony Martina's grandson, who was excited to hear about the photograph. I will notify Shorpy when I put the story together.
Fifty or so years earlier Henry Mayhew attempted to catalogue the lowest reaches of the poorer clases in "London Labour and the London Poor." This photograph is the closest I have seen to the the hand engravings which illustrate Mayhew's book, some of which were taken from early photographs. Mayhew's work had a great influence on the Victorian social reformers, including Dickens.
"The Boy Crossing Sweepers" is shown below.
This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. Anthony A. Martina was born July 2, 1897, and died in Buffalo in January of 1986. His wife Sylvia died in Buffalo on September 29, 1989. According to the 1940 census, he had three children, Robert, James and Sylvia. Robert died in Buffalo on December 7, 2002. I have been unable to find any information on the whereabouts of the other two children. According to the Buffalo city directories and the WWI draft records, Anthony worked for the Iroquois Natural Gas Company from at least 1918 to 1956. I haven't been able to obtain obituaries for Anthony, his wife, or son Robert.
The place is crawling with toddlers, one waiting to pounce (on the extreme right) and at least two in the window. With no T.V. I guess they had no entertainment.
My Grandfather was born in 1899, very near Buffalo, and he lived to see three centuries! He was lucky to work for his family business, instead of going off to work as did this young boy.
I grew up in East Aurora NY. Wonder if you Shorpy Gentleman have any old photos from that interesting Western NY Town?
Today's Top 5