Brooklyn Academy of Photography Blizzard of 1888 photograph album, 1888 – 1888

Call Number: V1974.040

Extent: 0.2 Linear feet, in one manuscript box.

The Brooklyn Academy of Photography Blizzard of 1888 photograph album dates from 1888 and contains 168 photographs. The album documents the effects of the blizzard in Brooklyn and Manhattan, showing street scenes, snow removal efforts, and different modes of transit hampered by the snowfall. Brooklyn neighborhoods represented in the collection include Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Williamsburg. The collection also contains images of Prospect Park, Fort Greene Park, the East River, and the Brooklyn terminal of the Wall Street ferry; Manhattan locations include Wall Street and Lower Manhattan. In addition to images of row houses, churches, and businesses buried in the snow, photographs in the collection also depict groups of laborers working to remove snowbanks, as well as horse-drawn streetcars and sleighs on Brooklyn streets.

All photographs in the album were taken by members of the Brooklyn Academy of Photography, though no individual photographers are identified. Some photographs in this collection are possibly the work of academy member Adrian Vanderveer Martense, as similar or identical images of the blizzard are also found in the Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection (ARC.191).

Names:

  • Brooklyn Academy of Photography

Places:

  • Bedford-Stuyvesant (New York, N.Y.)
  • Boerum Hill (New York, N.Y.)
  • Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)
  • Downtown Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
  • East River (N.Y.)
  • Fort Greene (New York, N.Y.)
  • Manhattan (New York, N.Y.)
  • Park Slope (New York, N.Y.)
  • Prospect Park (New York, N.Y.)
  • Wall Street (New York, N.Y.)
  • Williamsburg (New York, N.Y.)

Subjects:

  • Blizzards — Atlantic States
  • Church buildings — New York (State) — Kings County
  • Local transit — New York (State) — Kings County
  • Row houses — New York (State) — Kings County
  • Snow removal — New York (State) — Kings County
  • Street photography — New York (State) — Kings County

Types of material:

  • Photograph albums
  • Photographs

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Congregation Beth Elohim Oral History

Congregation Beth Elohim Oral History, 2010.  Sound recordings: 6 digital audio WAV files (7hr, 14min)

2011.004

In 2010, the Brooklyn Historical Society partnered with Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue founded in Park Slope, Brooklyn in 1861, to conduct an oral history with longtime member George Harris on the occasion of the Synagogue’s upcoming 150th anniversary (2011).  The synagogue on 8th Avenue and Garfield Place was completed in 1910 and the Temple House across Garfield Place was completed in 1929.

In these interviews, George Harris talks about his childhood in Queens, lifelong friendships, his grandparents immigration experiences, education, religious education, his wife Katherine Harris’ conversion to Judaism, changes in Park Slope 1962-2010, and the community of Congregation Beth Elohim including influential rabbis and changes in ritual practice 1962-2010.

Recordings of these interviews and accompanying transcripts are available in the Brooklyn Historical Society’s Othmer Library and at Congregation Beth Elohim.