Entering a New Era of Multimedia - Lehman College

The innocence of childhood, shining through
the waves of migration to the Bronx, is captured in an online
project called “Childhood in the Bronx,” created by Lehman’s
Leonard Lief Library. From Jewish and Italian immigrants of the
early twentieth century to Hispanic and African American families
later on, the sixty-one vintage and contemporary photos depict not
only generations but also layers of emotion. Idyllic, Huck-Finn types
of scenes contrast sharply with ones both tender and tragic, such
as a father kissing his beloved daughter at a homeless shelter.
Shown in top left corner: Sledding Along the Grand
Concourse. 1916. At right: Seventh Grade Class of a
Future President. 1930. In this photo from the
Riverdale Country School Archive, John F. Kennedy
is in the front row center. Below: My Cousin. 1900.
The girl in the photo lived with her family on Boston
Post Road in the
vicinity of where
Morris HS is now
located.
Below: Miss Mooney’s Class. 1905. A classroom in the
old PS 8 building on Mosholu Parkway.
20 Lehman Today/Spring 2010
Remember When?
Childhood in the Bronx
Above, center: Little Bo Peep. 1920. The costume was made of paper.
Those children in costume marched at the front of a parade to French
Charley’s near Frisch Field for a day of races and cool drinks.
The project has given new life to an exhibit originally shown at the
Lehman College Art Gallery in 1986. Bronx children are shown in
schools, playgrounds, community centers, and at play and amplified
in some cases through sound clips that give background and
context to the images.
“This exhibit gives visitors a chance to remember their own childhoods,”
says Special Collections Librarian Janet Munch, who
directed the project. “They also can see the borough in a different
light from the usual media and government reports.”
Above, right: Listening to the Radio. 1943. Serials like The Lone Ranger
and Buck Rogers were popular.
Vintage Photographs from the Collections of the Bronx Institute Archives
Contemporary Photographs by Georgeen Comerford