Collection of Thirty-Seven Silver Gelatin Photographs Documenting the Construction of the Interborough Rapid Transit Subway

New York: Studio of Pierre and Granville Pullis, 1901. Very Good. [New York]: [Pierre and Granville Pullis?], 1901-2. Collection of thirty-seven (37) silver gelatin photographs (chiefly 19x24cm or the inverse) affixed to original grey card mounts (28x35.5cm), all either captioned in image or in pencil along bottom margin of mounts, all initialed in pencil on verso. Two images starting to curl and separate from mounts, some images a bit washed out from over exposure at time of development, a few small losses to mount margins not affecting captions, else Very Good or better.

Rare series of photographs documenting the utter chaos involved in the construction of the earliest branch of the New York subway system, the Elm St Route which cut over to Broadway via 42nd Street with a branch under Lenox Ave. Construction took place simultaneously in fifteen different segments, the work conducted by almost as many contractors. Two of these can be identified in this collection: Holbrook, Cabot, and Daly Contracting Company, whose tiny clapboard power plant at Union Street is captured here; and Naughton & Company's enormous scaffolding beneath the Columbus Circle monument.

Images included here capture the now mostly-disappeared Elm Street, which stretched from Chambers to Spring Street and is splendidly documented here in multiple views taken above street level. Many of the stops and tunnels running below Broadway and Lenox also feature, from 14th Street all the way up to 156th. Images of special interest depict groups of workers in their street clothes and hats excavating as many as 150 feet below street level. Many of the images were also taken above, at, or just below street level, the tops of brick and stone buildings poking through the edge of the sidewalk with signs for H. Davidson Metal Goods or H. Falkenbach Patent Coachmen's Hats prominently visible.

Views also capture still-extant landmarks, from the excavation of the Central Park Tunnel to Union Square at 14th Street. Where today stands a Barnes and Noble flagship store once stood Dominick & Haff, "Makers of Wares in Steel & Silver for the Trade Only." Meanwhile, looking up 4th Avenue from 25th Street one could see an antique shop to the left, an undertaker directly across the street on the right.

A remarkable series of images taken from the spring of 1901 to the fall of 1902, two years before the completion and opening of the subway, which has been running almost without interruption ever since. Quite possibly taken by the studio of local brothers Pierre and Granville Pullis, the images are identical in style and captioning as other images taken by their Fulton Street studio. However, this series is free of identifying markings other than the consistent pencil initials on verso of each mount (JB or EZ?), perhaps by someone working for the studio, which historically employed a team of photographers to document construction sites across the city.