New York Street Kids, Dover, Children's Aid Society;  for sale $18.00
 
136 Photographs Selected by The Children's Aid Society with captions by 
John Von Hartz

Dover Publications, c. 1978, ISBN 0-486-23692-7, paperback, 106 pp., 8 x 10.5 
Inches

From the Introduction:  "This book depicts the many moods and faces of the 
children of New York's poor from the 1890s to the present.  It is a fascinating 
study, a tribute to the courage, creativity and resiliency of children who can 
rise above the problems and constraints of poverty to find adventure, beauty, 
and fun and humor in squalor and adversity.  In one sense it is a history of a 
great city itself--the gateway and barometer of a mighty nation.  In another, it 
tells the story of a caring, pioneering agency, the Children's Aid Society, 
which has worked on behalf of children in distress as advocate and service 
provider for 125 years."

The caption to the frontpiece (shown below) reads in part:  "Homeless Children 
Sleeping in an Alley.  Homeless slum kids found little to cheer about in the 
"Gay 90s".  Without a warm, safe place to sleep, they huddled under stairways, 
curled up in empty delivery carts, clung together in rat-infested cellars and 
dozed in blind alleys, as seen here in a famous photograph by Jacob Riis.  On 
winter nights their favorite sleeping niches were the heated lobbies of office 
buildings.  To discourage this practice, building superintendents doused the kids 
with cold water and drove them into the freezing night.  The prevailing attitude 
toward the street kid paralleled that expressed about the poor man--he could 
improve himself if he really wanted to."

Some of the photographers whose work is shown include Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, 
Alice Austen, Weegee, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Bruce Davidson.  Sources include 
The Children's Aid Society, the Museum of the City of New York, the New-York 
Historical Society, and the WPA.

In very good condition. Small bumps on lower corners of covers.  

Location: Duncan, AZ 85534. Phone: 928-359-2654.

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