Prospect Park, Brooklyn, December 1880The Brooklyn Museum has an amazing collection of photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s on their Flickr. I've been spending at least an hour looking through all of them. It's really amazing to think about Brooklyn (and New York City in general) as farmland with dirt roads and sheep roaming Prospect Park, but that's the way it was.
I'm currently reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which takes place during the first two decades of the 1900s. I like looking at some of these photos and knowing that it's probably what Francie Nolan saw while growing up in Williamsburg. By the way, if you live in Brooklyn then you MUST read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It's amazing and so great to read about street names and neighborhoods that I've lived and walked in. Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick (which I think used to be part of Williamsburg back then) are so different now, but the fact that Graham Ave. was always Graham Ave. and that McCarren Park is still around really brings you into the book. I only have 100 pages left, and I will be sad when it ends.
Anyway, here are a few of my favorites. I especially love the ones of Coney Island back in it's hay-day.
Blizzard of March 1888, Brooklyn, ca. 1888
Sheep, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, ca. 1872-1887
Buffalo (Mike), Prospect Park, Brooklyn, ca. 1899-1909
Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, ca. 1872-1887
[Untitled], ca. 1888
Elephant, Coney Island, Brooklyn, ca. 1885
Beach at Coney Island, Brooklyn, ca. 1888
Luna Park, 1906
Ferris Wheel, Coney Island, 1910
Dreamland, 1908
Cables and Iron Cow, Coney Island, Brooklyn, ca. 1872-1887
Luna Park and Surf Avenue, Coney Island, 1912
Luna Park, 1908
Neck Road at Conover's near Avenue V, Gravesend, Brooklyn, October 1899
Hunt's Lane, Ralph and Marshall, Rustic Gable, Foot 62nd Street, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, ca. 1899-1909
Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, ca. 1903-1910
Brooklyn Bridge, Looking East, New York City Side, July 7, 1899
