Changing New York. Photographs by. . . Text by Elizabeth McCausland. A publication of the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. . . .

New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1939. 4to. xiv, [16-206 pp (unpaginated).] Including photo frontisp., 96 photo plates, each with facing explanatory text. Blue tweed boards, black lettering & FAP logo on front cover, black lettering on spine (minor bumping head & foot of spine, edgewear, wear to corners, ffep renewed), w/ d.j. wraparound photo cover art by Abbott (chips & tears to front cover, corner, & spine, repaired & restored, paper restoration to verso), VG-/G- copy. First edition, stated, of this exceptional photo essay presenting 97 of Abbott’s images documenting New York during the Great Depression on the eve of World War II. Abbott was a former model and assistant to Man Ray, friend to Marcel Duchamp, and participated in Dadaist publications who was responsible for rescuing and promoting the photos of Eugene Atget which chronicled 30 years of Parisian streetscapes as “realism unadorned.” Returning to New York in 1929, she spent the next 10 years determined to present New York in the same light, with stunning photos of curiosities, New York architectural details, old tenements, elevated structures, costly skyscrapers, gritty street life, pushcarts, barber shops, and remote alleys in Greenwich Village. With support from the Federal Art Project, Abbott together with a staff of more than a dozen including darkroom printers, field assistants, researchers, and clerks, produced this work in advance of the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow, NY, with captions written by her life partner and art critic, Elizabeth McCausland (1899-1965). See: Parr & Badger, The Photobook, Vol. I, p. 141; New York Public Library, Digital Collections, Changing New York Collection History.