#jamesreuelsmith

[nyhistory]

These kids seem like they’re having fun...but where are they and what are they doing? James Reuel Smith took this photograph sometime between 1893 and 1905, probably in New York CIty. Is that an armory of some kind in the background? What’s with the costumes? 

Can you identify this photo?

[nyhistory]

Sometimes, in the course of digitizing photographs, we draw a blank when it comes to description. These photographs live in the mysterious Box 10 of the James Reuel Smith Springs and Wells Photograph Collection. They were probably taken between 1893 and 1905 somewhere in New York State. That’s all we know. 

So then...Harlem River? Erie Canal? Can you identify either of these locations?