Where The Dream Was Made
The Vitagraph Studio in Brooklyn
by Irvin Leigh Matus
New York's Five Points
as depicted in the contemporary press
by Gregory Christiano
What is urbanography?
A site devoted to writings on urban history and civil society, with an eye to recognizing the present by understanding the past.
Why 'urbanography'?
urban – from Latin, pertaining to a city or town;
-ography – "Forming nouns denoting processes or styles of writing, drawing, or graphic representation, or (more commonly) names of descriptive sciences or similar disciplines"– O.E.D
A visit to
The Five Points
by Charles Dickens
When New York had Two Police Forces
The Police Riots of 1857
reported by Gregory Christiano
The Dead Rabbits,
the Bowery Boys...
The Gang Riots of 1857
reported by Gregory Christiano
______________
Impaled on a Street Car
Street Railway Review, 1893
An accident, as terrible as it was unusual, occurred on a Taylor street open car in this city [Chicago].
An inventor who had been placing a safety device at the ends of the Harrison street bridge, to prevent teams [of horses] from falling into the river when the bridge was open, carelessly left a lever out of position, used as a part of his device. This wooden lever, several feet in length, fell at the instant when the car was passing, and the outer end dropped in such a way as to pass entirely through the body of one of the female passengers, and penetrated the back of several seats.
It was found impossible to remove the patient except by sawing the lever as close to the body as possible. She was then hurried to the hospital in a police ambulance. Conciousness being restored the patient was informed of the fatal nature of the accident,, and her friends being summoned received her last wishes. The surgeons then withdrew the splinter when death resulted in a few minutes from hemorrhage. Mellon the inventor is now in jail.
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