Rambling through the New York City Parks Department’s archive unearths an extraordinary social and cultural history. From an amateur boxing class to the camel that once helped to mow Sheep Meadow, check out some of the forgotten moments:
On July 9, 1936, the weather station at Belvedere Castle, in Central Park, recorded its highest-ever temperature: a hundred and six degrees Fahrenheit. That simmering summer, the New York City Parks Department—centralized two years earlier, under its first commissioner, Robert Moses—opened eleven municipal swimming pools throughout the city. They were, as Thomas J.
Such grand openings were just one of many activities captured by the Parks Department’s official photographers, whom Moses hired, beginning in 1934, to record park creation and use. In the following three decades, park photographers produced thirty-three thousand negatives, which form the core of a roughly three-hundred-thousand-image photo archive. The collection covers the eighteen-sixties through the present.
The photographs document aspects of the vast amount of labor that went into the construction and reconstruction of parks, of the varied activities they have housed—as well as of the economic cycles of the city. The first photograph in the core collection, titled “Camp Dyckman,” was taken on February 9, 1934—at fifteen degrees below zero, the coldest day in the city on record.
The images are often beautiful and beautifully composed; in no way are they perfunctory records of this or that happening. The Moses-era photographers “each had their own camera and their own size and format,” Jonathan Kuhn, the director of art and antiquities for the department, said. “They very much believed in what they were doing, and they were artists.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
New York lets COVID-19 health care mask requirements lapse - New York Amsterdam NewsNew York state officials said they will allow COVID-19-related masking requirements for staff and visitors in hospitals and other health care facilities to lapse on Sunday.
Read more »
New York lawmaker proposes plan to move Jets to new stadium in QueensThere are already plans to build a soccer stadium in Willets Point and Gang Green could opt out of their contract at MetLife Stadium next year.
Read more »
NYC’s Park Lane Hotel Just Unveiled a New 24/7 Caviar Hotline So You Can Order Ossetra on DemandPark Lane New York has a fun new way of serving your favorite delicacy.
Read more »
What's next for Texas' new state parks in the works near Houston, DallasAs Abbott calls for more state parks, what's next for Palo Pinto, Powderhorn Ranch projects
Read more »
New York Fashion Week: Lindsay Lohan Shines in Bronze, Julia Fox Goes GrungeLindsay Lohan, Julia Fox, Lana Condor, Nicky Hilton, Quinta Brunson and more stars stepped out to celebrate New York Fashion Week — photos
Read more »