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NEW YORK, New York in the 1880s: 1 through 7 of 7

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  1. Boys and Baseball
    date February 9, 1883map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Adolescence, New York City 1880s, City Life

    Boys do not like sitting around and talking. They would much rather be running, jumping, throwing, and screaming. So it comes as a complete surprise to see that on February 9, 1883, a group of adolescent boys, aged anywhere from ten to sixteen, gathered together as delegates of eleven of New York's grammar schools to form a baseball club. The boys came from the city's schools, known by numbers and...

  2. Uncommon Access and Consumerism
    date May 24, 1883map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Science/Technology, Economy

    The souvenir booklet distributed by merchandiser Frederick Loeser during the initial weeks of the opening of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge on May 24, 1883, represented an early example of direct marketing. The crush of pedestrian traffic that gathered on the bridge's promenade deck was anxious to experience what was described as the "Eighth Wonder of the World", and no doubt contained shoppers....

  3. American Women’s Social Status in 1800’s
    date January 1, 1883 to December 31, 1883map NEW YORK, New Yorktags poverty, Women, social status

    Emily Faithfull, an English women right’s activist and writer, discovered an interesting phenomenon during her trips to the United States in 1872 and 1882. Many middle class and upper class women she met were leading a harsh life after losing their fathers or husbands. In two cases, the daughter of a navy Commander and the wife of a General of the United States Army were not able to make a living...

  4. The Double Hip “Ironsides” Corset shapes American Women
    date 1885map NEW YORK, New Yorktags fashion, corsets, women's rights

    Victorian women liked their corsets tight.  If a person looked up and down any busy street in the late nineteenth century, they saw townswomen that struck dramatic silhouettes.  The corset, a tight fitting, boned garment, restricted movement and reshaped the natural position of organs inside a women's body.  A trade card from 1885 featured a corset typical of the period dubbed the Double Hip "Ironsides"...

  5. State of Liberty and Immigrants: First Days
    date 1886map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Statue of Liberty, Immigrants

    The Statue of Liberty is an icon of today, just as it was for immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th Century.  The inauguration of the Statue of LIberty took place on Thursday, October 23, 1886.  The day started with a military, naval and civil parade in New York City.  After the parade, a signal was given for steamers in the bay to move in a particular and pre-calculated order towards the island....

  6. Growing Pains in New York's Lower East Side
    date 1880 to 1901map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Urban-Life/Boosterism, Immigration, Church/Religious-Activity

    An early 1900s postcard photograph from New York's Souvenir Post Card Company captures the Lower East Side's crowded and chaotic environment. As American Jewish historian Hasia Diner notes, "at the right moment in time, under the right conditions, ordinary places become transformed into spaces throbbing with meaning." Such was the case with New York's iconic Lower East Side. The photo shows Hester...

  7. Reforming "The Bend"
    date 1888 to 1897map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Urban Society, Urban-Life/Boosterism, Government, Progressive Reformers

    "Where Mulberry Street crooks like an elbow within hail of the old depravity of the Five Points, is "the Bend," foul core of New York's slums." These words, written by Jacob A. Riis in his groundbreaking 1890 work, How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, describe a desolate corner of the urban decay that characterized New York's Lower East Side in the late 1800s. Riis, a...