Viewbooks

[Stereo card of New York buildings]
American Scenery/New York City: A. T. Stewart & Co.’s Building and Grace Church

Photographs of New York City No. 1.
New York: E. & H. T. Anthony & Co., [c. 1870s].

From the 1850s onwards, stereo cards with two photographs of a given subject (observed through a special viewer) became increasingly available, especially by the 1870s. There are many stereo cards of New York City subjects. But they were not generally published in book or pamphlet form. This accordion-fold volume produced by Anthony, a leading photography ﬁrm, is a rare exception. It displays one photograph of each subject from what appears (by size) to be stereo card photographs.

Views of New York.
[No publisher, no date]. [multi-colored lithographic paper cover].

Souvenir of New York.
[Manufactured by Chisholm Bros. – Portland Me., manufacturers of Chas. Frey’s Original Souvenir Albums of all American Cities and Sceneries. n.d.].

Louis Glaser’s Process involved having artists produce drawings based on photographs,
improving the photos by cleaning up and making more attractive what was depicted in the
original photographs. Then the altered image was printed by complex lithography, resulting
in a “varnished” surface and image. These albums were produced primarily during the later
1870s through the 1880s.

[ James H.] Dakin, and Theodore S. Fay. Views of New-York and its Environs from Accurate, Characteris-tic & Picturesque Drawings . . .
New York: Peabody & Co., 233 Broadway, and London: O. Rich, No. 12 Red Lion Square, 1831.

One of the ﬁrst viewbooks of New York City, this volume was originally issued over several years in eight parts, each with a few pages of text and two pages of intaglio-engraved views. There is also a map. While 10 parts were planned, only eight were issued. The engraved title, dated 1831, states that the views are drawn by Dakin, but he drew only six of the views. The rest are by Lundie, Davis, Dick, Fossette, and Osborne. The last view in the book, shown here, is La Grange Terrace (also known as Colonnade Row), on La Fayette Place. Built by Seth Geer in 1833, four of the nine houses remarkably survive today.

E. Idell Zeisloft, Ed. The New Metropolis.
New York: D. Appleton & Company, [1899] Autograph Memorial Edition De Luxe; No. LXXXII of 250 copies printed for Mrs. S. N. Benjamin.

The ultimate New York City coffee-table book celebrating the Consolidation of the City of New York in 1898. Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the rest of the Bronx were combined with Manhattan and part of the Bronx to become the City of New York. Zeisloft claims supremacy for New York in invention, American literature, music, drama, art, and more. But Zeisloft goes on to say, “The cosmopolitan character of New York is best represented on its great [Lower] East Side, where is presented a picture of human misery unparalleled in the world. But New York is grappling bravely with this problem, so suddenly thrust upon it by the enforced exodus from their native lands of the hordes of non-self-supporting and incapable humanity.” The book, like the Shepps volume, spends considerable space on both wealth and poverty in New York. The volume is extensively illustrated, with a number of double-page spreads – the list of illustrations goes on for pages.

W. H. Guild, Jr. & Fred. B. Perkins. The Central Park: Photographed by W. H. Guild, Jr., with De-scriptions and a Historical Sketch, by Fred. B. Perkins.
New York: Carleton, Publisher, 413 Broadway, 1864

A remarkable look at Central Park through 52 original albumen photographs that show the Park very early in its existence. By 1864, much work had been done (as the photographs attest), but much work remained. It was an enormous engineering and reconstruction project, started in 1857 and running for years thereafter. Construction proceeded generally from south to north. Other Central Park items may be seen in the hall, including a map and guide of the Park published in 1859.

Quarantine Sketches, Compliments of The Maltine Company.
Designed & Executed by H. A. Thomas & Wylie Lith. Co., 1902

Photographs of the arrival, processing, and release (or detention) of immigrants at Ellis Island comprise this viewbook. It depicts Ellis Island about a decade after its opening. In the very brief text at the beginning, The Maltine Co. states that “Hundreds of thousands – men, women, and children – pass over, or are detained at the Doorstep of America every year. In this pamphlet are illustrated the various precautions which the Government takes to ensure desirable material for future citizenship.”

New York. Indelible Photographs.
Copyright 1891 by A. Wittemann, 67 and 69 Spring Street. The Albertype Company.

The Wittemann brothers had been in the viewbook business at least since 1880, selling viewbooks using Louis Glaser’s Process. This book is one of the earliest Wittemann volumes using the Albertype process (collotype) for reproducing photographs. There is a good selection of views, including some uncommon ones, such as Fifth Avenue north of 41st Street, with the Croton Reservoir on the left (where the Public Library is today).

James W. Shepp and Daniel B. Shepp. New York City Illustrated.
Chicago, Ill. and Philadelphia, Pa.: Globe Bible Publishing Co., 1894 Sold by Subscription only.

This profusely illustrated volume covers most aspects of the City, with many photographs not seen elsewhere. As the authors say, “Here are portrayed the mansions of the rich, and the ‘Four Hundred’ who dwell therein, and the shoddy aristocracy which vainly tries to emulate them; the great middle class, happily not yet extinct; the army of labor and its daily toilings; the homes of the poor and all the pathos that invests them; the reeking slums and their scarcely human denizens.” The only comparable (but grander) volume is Zeisloft’s The New Metropolis ﬁve years later (also in this exhibition), celebrating the Consolidation of the City in 1898.

Frank W. Staley. Staley’s Views of New York 1910.
New York: Published by Frank W. Staley, 1910

Staley’s viewbook has high-quality reproduction combined with heavier coated-stock paper and, most importantly, good photography. There are various wide-angle or panoramic photos, and some unusual perspectives on common subjects.

Night in New York.
New York: Newcomb Publishing Co. 2 Hudson Street, 1907

Electricity created a different look for New York at night. This thin viewbook provided a souvenir of New York after dark.

Scenes of Modern New York.
Portland, Me.: L. H. Nelson Company, 1905

L. H. Nelson was one of the largest purveyors of viewbooks. This example contains the standard views, and also views of the new subway. The introduction is a paean to New York: “ . . . New York stands alone. . . . New York is now the ﬁnancial and business center of the world. Its bank clearings exceed those of London nearly 50 percent. . . . Nothing daunts the audacious boldness of New York. . . .”