Immaculately Restored Film Lets You Revisit Life in New York City in 1911
Other than one or two of the world's supercentenarians, nobody remembers New York in 1911. Plenty of living historians and enthusiasts of the city have paid intensive attention to that booming time period when the city's population fast approached five million, but none experienced it first-hand.
Take a look at the tailored or tailored-looking clothing on nearly everyone, even the one-legged man making his deliberate way past the Chinese grocery. Then as now, most New Yorkers got around on foot, and since the city's first subway line had opened just seven years before, the dominant public transit options remained streetcars and elevated trains.
MoMA, which exhibited the footage last year, also points out familiar landmarks: "Opening and closing with shots of the Statue of Liberty, the film also includes New York Harbor; Battery Park and the John Ericsson statue; the elevated railways at Bowery and Worth Streets; Broadway sights like Grace Church and Mark Cross; the Flatiron Building on Fifth Avenue; and Madison Avenue." Any modern New Yorker halfway interested in the city will know all those places, and even if the city has changed in countless other ways, they'll sense the very same characteristic vitality in these clips that they feel there today.
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Nice pics, thanks. Amazing how different the city used to look. Cleaner and for that time a modern metropolis. Today it's loaded with barriers, heavy traffic and how should I say it, danger can arrive in a minute from out of nowhere!
Very, VERY cool!
We've all seen cinema reproductions of the same period, but this is the real thing... and it shos us that the movie-makers are wrong about one thing, bigly! Movies always show the streets teeming with people... but in fact, they were mostly empty! Pedestrians could wander at will...
Very, VERY cool!
I'm glad you enjoyed it. One of many things I noticed is that the vehicles' steering wheels were on the right instead of the left as they are today in US cars. Thank you for commenting!
Lots of stuff to notice that is far different today.. Thank you for sharing the video. I watched in amazement. Footage shot like this is so telling. So real and so rare.
Thanks again
You're welcome, and thanks for stopping by to comment.
Very cool. It seems that people in 1911 dressed just like they do in movies about that era. Ain't that somethin !
Not one of the 115 tallest buildings in NYC today existed in 1911. Closest is the Woolworth building which went up in 1913.
John,
The triangular looking building in the opening is the Flatiron Building. When it was first built in the 1880's, it was the tallest building in the city and is considered to be the first skyscraper built in New York. Doesn't look all that tall compared to what is there today, and it looks like it was already outstripped by some of the others there in 1911, but it was considered almost a Wonder of the World when it was built.
Several years ago, I acquired roughly 1000 Magic Lantern glass slides; these dated from roughly 1876-1920.
I have restored many of them, created digitized files, some of which depict scenes from New York City, Several World's Fairs, Europe, and other subjects I cannot identify as to time and place.
I will go through my data base and post some.
That's great. I always love those.
Very well restored. I'm glad that they corrected the speed. All of the previous old films I've seen look as if everyone is running. That was due to the cameras and projectors being hand cranked and not synchronized with each other.
Hats, hats and more hats. I guess everyone wore a hat! ha.
They did. Even when I was growing up, where I lived both men and women still wore hats. Men wore them all the time, and women wore hats and gloves for church, shopping, going to the theater/movies, and visiting.
Very cool Japer. I think that was the year my grandmother came to New York.
Loved the shots of the Flatiron building. Here it is now:
In some ways the city has changed and in others it looks familiar. The downtown area didn't change that much but the rest of the city wow.
Thanks for posting this. It was an amazing look back at a by gone day.
As indicated previously, I am posting a RESTORED IMAGE … this originating as a MAGIC LANTERN GLASS SLIDE; the caption was added by me.
I have restored and created digital counterparts for roughly 1000 of these slides.
© A. Mac/A.G.
I like it. There's a retro-futurist aspe t...
As indicated previously, I am posting a RESTORED IMAGE … this originating as a MAGIC LANTERN GLASS SLIDE; the caption was added by me.
Very nice photo, but it would be more appropriate and polite to submit your photographic work on your own article instead of detracting from my seed.
it would be more appropriate and polite to submit your photographic work on your own article instead of detracting from my seed.
Excuse me … I will never again detract from your seeds.
You're wrong, Jasper.
Mac's post adds to the conversation. Your film is a period piece. Mac's photo is a period piece they fit together very nicely.
You're wrong, Jasper.
Thank you for sharing your opinion.
Mac's post adds to the conversation. Your film is a period piece. Mac's photo is a period piece they fit together very nicely.
While I agree that both Mac's and my photos/film are period pieces, if I had added my film to his or someone else's seed/article, a moderator would have stepped in to tell me that my film was off-topic and detracting from Mac's topic. It is what it is.
While I agree that both Mac's and my photos/film are period pieces, if I had added my film to his or someone else's seed/article, a moderator would have stepped in to tell me that my film was off-topic and detracting from Mac's topic. It is what it is.
Absolutely incorrect, and, contradicted by perhaps, a hundred or more photo and Creative Arts Group discussions in which, not only did such moderation NOT occur, but, within which, the very opposite has taken place and continues to take place! "Photography and Creative Arts are not only the names of the feature and Group, but inherently, the VERY TOPIC ITSELF regardless of the subject or medium.
Feel free to add any of your film or photos to those discussions without fear of being "moderated."
Certainly in the political forums where "off-topic" is frequently used as an excuse to thwart disparate opinions … that occurs … but not in the photography nor the Creative Arts Group.
And for the record, the photograph to which you objected is quite ON-TOPIC since it represents the restoration of a graphic medium iteration from the same photographic and film technological era.
Feel free to add any of your film or photos to those discussions without fear of being "moderated."
Certainly in the political forums where "off-topic" is frequently used as an excuse to thwart disparate opinions … that occurs … but not in the photography nor the Creative Arts Group.
Then I stand corrected and deeply apologize. In my 6 months of membership, it has been my impression that NewsTalkers does not allow that which deviates from the topic of a seed or article. I did not know that some groups allow deviations.
Thank you for your invitation to add your group.
Jasper, you'll find that the photography group is a fun group and everyone contributes photos. Some are of professional quality and others, like mine, are just the best I can do with phone/camera.
There are also a number of photo essay's that are great and people add to the photos or comment.
Give them a try, you'll enjoy it.
Thanks, Kavika. When I found this movie, I wanted to share it on NT, but I didn't see a group I belonged to where I could do it. When I saw this group, I thought, "Well, I'm not a member, but maybe I can add the movie to it" and sure enough, I could.
I'd like to again apologize to everyone I offended, and I won't make that mistake again.
I don't take photos, but when I find something interesting on the Internet, I'll seed it to this group.
Jasper, I would add a photo of my lovely wife of many many years that was taken on a stoop in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn in 1945.
If I dared she would say something to the order of, ''hey dumb ass, what do you think your doing''.
LOL
Jasper,
Please be a frequent contributor and consider the Photography & Art, and, the Creative Arts Group as "OPEN" forums for stills, film, video … all things creative …
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