Swan boats in Prospect Park, ca.1890, v1972.1.574; Brooklyn Historical Society Photography Collection.
Prospect Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and opened in 1867. Olmsted and Vaux intended to create a pastoral, picturesque landscape and manufactured a series of waterways to help achieve this goal. This body of water, once called Swan Boat Lake, is now known as the Pools, and was recently restored. At the turn of the century, boats like the one pictured were available to rent from a boathouse on the lake, for 10 cents per hour.