Distinctly Dutch - New York State Museum

new york stories
Berenice Abbott’s “Changing New York”
By Craig Williams
Right: Bread Store on Bleecker
Street (February 3, 1937). This
type of family business was still
common in Abbott’s time.
NYSM H-1940.7.49
Bottom Right: Washington
Square (August 12, 1936). These
19th-century town houses at the
northwest corner of the square are
now part of New York University.
NYSM H-1940.7.48
Below: Tempo of the City (May
13, 1948). At the corner of Fifth
Avenue and 42nd Street, Abbott
photographed office workers and
shoppers on one of city’s busiest
intersections. NYSM H-1940.7.7
Senior Historian
Craig Williams is
curator of photography
at the New York
State Museum.
In the 1930s, amidst the hardships
of the Great Depression,
the State Museum had a
remarkable opportunity. The
federal government’s Works
Progress Administration funded
many of the Museum’s activities
in science and history. It also
supported unemployed artists
and scholars across New York
state. The Museum’s director,
Charles Adams, linked these
WPA-sponsored programs
to bring exhibitions to the
State Museum.
The first of these occurred
in the summer of 1938 with
“Changing New York,” Berenice
Abbott’s remarkable photographic
documentation of New
York City. Abbott had returned
to New York City from Europe in
1929, and the changes she saw
in the city’s landscape inspired
her. First on her own and later
with support from the WPA’s
Federal Art Project, Abbott
carefully photographed the
city. The loan exhibit of these
photographs was a great
success at the State Museum.
Recognizing the richness of
Abbott’s documentation of New
York, Adams was convinced that
the State Museum should have
a set of her prints. With the
support of Abbott and her
partner, Elizabeth McCausland,
Adams obtained the backing of
Governor Lehman to acquire a
set of the Abbott prints from
the WPA in 1940. Many of
these original prints are being
featured in the Museum’s
current exhibition, Berenice
Abbott’s Changing New York:
A Triumph of Public Art. n
20 n Legacy