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March 1909. New Haven, Connecticut. "12-year-old newsboy, Hyman Alpert, been selling three years. Spends evenings in Boys Club." I bet Hy was a pretty good newsie. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
My husband checks Shorpy every day and often sends me a link to check out different ones of special interest. After looking at the one he sent me today I clicked on this link, not knowing what I would see. How wonderful to see this picture and read the date and city. My father was born in New Haven in March 1909. A wonderful view back in time to the world he was born into. Fascinating. I love his stance and photographically the wonderful background of all the stacked books...Great shot!
This is Joe Manning again. I can't get the obit from the New Haven Public Library because they charge too much to look it up. The likely brother was David Alpert, who died Feb 15, 1984, in West Haven, CT. Are there any Shorpy readers in the New Haven area who can look it up? All I need is the text of the obit, not necessarily an actual copy. If so, just type it in as a Shorpy reply, with Hyman's Obit as the subject.
This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. There is definitely some confusion about his Social Security death record. But I believe I found him in the census, and if so, I found the death record for one of his brothers. I have requested the obituary. We'll see what that turns up.
Surprisingly, there are lots of Hyman Alperts in the Social Security Death Index.
http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
My guess (given the information with the photograph) is the 1896 one - he died in 1974.
Alternatively he could have been lying about his age - also in the SSDI there's a New Haven entry (last residence) for a Hyman Alpert born in 1899. That would be closer in vicinity. He died in 1982.
...but then stand aside, Hy, I'm headed into that bookstore!
Hy looks like a determined guy. I'll bet everybody in his life talked about his stubborn streak.
So many of these working kids have the weary eyes of old men.
Hy is wonderful.
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