Distinctly Dutch - New York State Museum

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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
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Distinctly Dutch - New York State Museum

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