Brooklyn Visual Heritage has joined up with Project CHART to put historical photos of the borough online, and the result is a wonderful gift to anyone who has ever nerded out about history or Brooklyn. The collection is so massive and the browsing subjects so intriguing (liquidation, roller skaters, alleys, doughnuts??) that it’s easy to imagine losing an hour to the search. Here’s a peek at some of the Park Slope highlights.
The Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides include some great streetscapes, like Snow Plough on 7th Avenue from 1914 (seen above). Delving deeper into history, we find his shot called Summer, showing a tree-lined Prospect Park West from 1908:
Check out 1 Prospect Park West back in 1951, when it was the Knights of Columbus Clubhouse (photo from Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Collection):
239 Fifth Avenue was strictly residential long before it became Moutarde, as we see in this 1960 untitled shot by John D. Morrell:
The Anders Goldfarb collection takes us into the 1970s. Take this 1978 shot of 7th Avenue between 2nd & 3rd Streets simply titled Park Slope, during what appears to be a street fair (check out the old Tarzian sign!):
But the best discovery is perhaps in the huge collection of cat photography. So many street cats, especially from the Ralph Irving Lloyd collection, circa early 20th century. Our opening photograph is “A Cat Named ‘Well?’” (a hilariously perfect name for any pet), and another personal favorite is “A Cat Named ‘Alert’” (both from 1910):
Happy exploring!
All photos via Brooklyn Visual Heritage
