Old Newspaper Archives

A man reads a newspaper on New York's 6th Ave. and 40th St., with the headline: "Nazi Army Now 75 Miles From Paris," on May 18, 1940.
(AP Photo/Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives)

The estimable Alan Taylor at The Atlantic's InFocus has curated another small selection from the 870,000 images from New York City's Municipal Archive, including several previously unseen shots by Eugene de Salinac. Note #26, which is creepy yet has a curious bit of photo-tech interest, too.

There's a second set here.

Speaking of old news photos, there's a seller on eBay who is dispersing some newspaper archives. On a whim I just bought this one, a photo from 1957 called "Car in which Salvatore Moretti, Chicago policeman, was found slain near Joliet." I had no press photos in my collection.

The company claims to be putting up 15,000 old press images a week for auction, which is a little horrifying in its implications (sign of the times). But whatever.

(The JPEG has the seller's watermarks on it, obviously.)

Mike

UPDATE: Turns out there's a known story behind my random eBay find. Sal Moretti was an ex-policeman turned hitman who bungled a mob hit—he carelessly left valuables and papers on his victim's corpse, including a receipt that tied a mob boss to the killing. When his body was found in the trunk of this car, all of his possessions except his comb had been taken, his pockets had been turned inside out, and even the labels of his clothes were cut out. This was apparently a message to other mob hitmen: be more careful about what you leave behind. Moretti's murder allegedly made other hitmen so nervous that several subsequent victims of mob murders were found with all their clothing removed.

The car in the picture, which had been stolen, was found in Joliet presumably because at the time of Moretti's murder his brother was serving time in prison there.

The full story (much, much fuller) is here. Thanks to Andy Kowalczyk for the link.

The man in the picture is a Joliet Sheriff named Roy Doerfaer or Doerfler.

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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Andrew: "It's amazing how many images have been put up for sale on the Internet. Some images are available as a single print, other images have multiple prints available—although the sellers generally don't tell you how many copies they have. I've bought a few, and I've seen a couple re-listed again—in each case they are all original prints, on single weight fibre based paper, usually with a Roneo'd (copied) description of the photo stuck to the back. For the price they are a great way to collect original, interesting photographs, and at the same time preserve some history...."

Comments

[Kenneth Tanaka]

So many wonderful, remarkable images with no credit whatsoever. Just another work day for press photographers at the turn of the 20th.

I could be convinced that #3 was captured by Helen Levitt. I could also be convinced that Bruce Davidson might have taken #36 (of course he didn't!). And wait, isn't that a little Berenice Abbott in #38?!

For those who like the di Salignac images (which are wonderful ex: #16, 17, 24) I highly recommend New York Rises. As you look through some of his images you can only wonder how the hell he managed to get his 8x10 camera, with glass plates, into positions to make the shots.

[Richard Alan Fox]

Ken's point is certainly one to ponder by all of us who work for hire or create our own work without an audience.
For thirty years I wrote COBOL code by day and photographed every other living moment for my own self.
The intellectual product I created for pay runs daily in the darkness of the mainframe completely without credit or even acknowledgement.
The photographs are mine but for the most part unseen due to the lack of access to the public eye that a newspaper offers.

[Andy Kowalczyk]

Sal Moretti, Chicago policeman, turned hit man for the outfit:

http://ganglandchicago.blogspot.com/2010/02/feature-article-3-bad-career-move.html

[Laurence Smith]

These are a WONDERFUL find! I've never been to New York (or Wash. DC for that matter, guess I'd better get going on that before age does me in). These give an insight into how New York was "built", and the images are gorgeous.

By the way, does anyone see any safety clips or harnesses on any of the bridge painters? Holy Cow, I don't see anything!

Laurence

[MJFerron]

Love that top shot. NYC 6th ave. Reminds me a bit of Austin's well known 6th St. Maybe my shots from this area will be be considered history and art 50 years from now? I'll be gone but hopefully folks will still enjoy viewing "vintage" photography.

[David]

There are many incredible images there, likely considered no more important at the time than any of today's press images are today. Such is the challenge of proper archiving, and typical lack of same.

At least these are being auctioned, instead of what my last employer (a major daily metro) did, trash theirs.

These were all published? I don't see any grease pencil crop marks. Or maybe they got the negs.

[Mike Johnston]

"Sal Moretti, Chicago policeman, turned hit man for the outfit: http://ganglandchicago.blogspot.com/2010/02/feature-article-3-bad-career-move.html"

Uh...holy crap!

Mike

[Jonathan Morse]

More about your observation, "a little horrifying in its implications": at

http://theartpart.jonathanmorse.net/2012/01/snap-shots-of-an-event-that-may-become-historic/

I blog about two newspaper photographs of an event from World War I that has all but disappeared from history. It survives only in a newspaper archive -- and when the Gannett Corporation took over that newspaper, it destroyed the newspaper's own copy of the archive.

[Richard Tugwell]

I'm just looking at that newspaper photo in the post. It has a certain "Je ne sais quoi" about it that I really like. Can't put my finger on it. I'm not absolutely 100% certain, but I'll bet it was taken with a MFT camera....

[James]

#11 is the stand out for me. Wish I had a chance to print it.