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The latest stop on our circa 1900 walking tour of New York: "Cab stand at Madison Square." Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size.
Carrie Bradshaw and Charlotte 100 years earlier?
Lovely photo!
Using Google Maps, I found the location of the photo. We're looking south along 5th Avenue where Broadway crosses at Madison Square Park. In the photo the park is on the left and you can just see the Flatiron through the trees. I couldn't move the vantage point any closer to the photographer's position since the Google vans don't drive on the sidewalks.
A really nice image. It feels "alive."
Love this picture. Makes me wish I could paint and reproduce it. So much human interest -- two beautiful girls passing by completely oblivious of the admiring look of the cab driver This picture has been "done" many times in later eras but it is even more intriguing because of the era. I love the swish of the girls' skirts. They are hurrying and too busy to notice the cabbie's glance.
Even 110 years later, these two women are instantly recognizable as New Yorkers. You would have no problem finding that same expression of hostile aloofness on the streets of Manhattan today.
I imagine that just out of the frame to the left are a couple of Irish nannies taking care of the children of these two.
With one daring and coquettish swish of their skirts, the ladies sashay fashionably into the new century. You go, girls!
Pics like this one often make me imagine the same scene a hundred years earlier, and somehow these photos makes it easier: same scene, only ladies and gents in different dress, slightly different tack on the horses and design of the carriages, and the buildings lower -- but with the aid of a pic like this I can imagine more easily what reality really looked like circa 1800.
The rigs are Hansom cabriolets, or "cabs" for short. Named for their designer, the architect Joseph Hansom.
Yes indeed, those fillies are certainly handsome! Horses nice too.
[They're also "Hansom." Get it? - Dave]
they're concentrating on breathing. Those have to be the most cinched-in waists I've ever seen.
Dearest Dude Dave,
Every so often I think you've put my dear NYC on the back burner for too long -- and then four of the best you've ever posted, all in a row.
God Bless You.
This wonderful picture could be Paris and we might expect to see Leslie Caron at any moment!
One can only imagine the agony of getting into the tight corsets that produced those very slim waistlines when hourglass figures were fashionable at the turn of the century,
Yes, indeed -- over the years, the ladies always get our attention, even with all those layers.
We have not lost the sun, so I wonder why we did away with the awnings that seem to have been common when this wonderful photo was taken. Did AC render them useless?
Look at those waistlines! How were the ladies able to walk without grimacing?
Also note the sign in the far background promoting The Steel Pier in Atlantic City. I really like any of the pix that show signage (and ladies' fashions and personal good looks, for that matter) from back in turn of the century Manhattan.
a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking but now, God knows, anything goes.
How many beads do you get for flashing the ankles ?
Oh those bold fillies, showing their ankles. Again, wonderful detail. Some things never change.
Another awesome picture Dave. I love the way the two girls are ignoring the sly look of the cab driver.
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