#242 New York and the Dawn of Photography

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2017

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We’re taking you back to a world that seems especially foreign today – a world with no selfie sticks, no tens of billions of photographs taken every day from digital screens, a world where the photograph was a rare, special and beautiful thing. New York City plays a very interesting role in the development of photography. While the medium was not invented here, many of its earliest American practitioners were trained here. In particular, the students of Samuel Morse (better known for the telegraph) became masters of the daguerreotype portrait in the early 1840s. The first space photography was taken from the rooftop of New York University. Broadway was known across the country for its dozens of daguerreotypists and their lavishly appointed galleries. But the greatest of them all was Mathew Brady who, from his famous Broadway studio, focused on capturing the images of the world's most famous people -- from Abraham Lincoln to Barnum favorite Tom Thumb. You may know Brady from his Civil War photography, bringing a dose of realism into the parlors of sheltered New Yorkers. One particular gallery show in 1862 called The Dead of Antietam would shake the city and set the stage for the invention of photojournalism. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode of The Bowery Boys is brought to you by Bulldozer, the Ballad of Robert Moses.
0:06.0	In this new off-broadway rock musical, New York's infamous power broker pushes his way through the city,
0:12.8	pursuing free-flowing traffic no matter the cost.
0:16.4	But when one community, led by Jane Jacobs, rises up against the master builder,
0:21.5	can the voice of the people stop the Bulldozer?
0:24.5	Previews begin November 25, 2017 at the theater at St. Clements,
0:29.7	with an all-star cast, including Cabaret favorite Molly Pope as Jane Jacobs.
0:35.0	TV star Wayne Wilcox as Nelson Rockefeller, an American Idol finalist, Constantine Marulis,
0:41.3	as Robert Moses.
0:43.2	As a special offer for our listeners, Bowery Boys fans can unlock half-price prime and premium seats
0:50.5	with code Bulldozer Boys.
0:53.5	For tickets, head to bulldozer.nyc.
0:58.0	Episode 242 of The Bowery Boys, New York and the dawn of photography.
1:03.4	Hey, it's The Bowery Boys.
1:05.0	Hey.
1:06.3	Support for The Bowery Boys is provided by our listeners.
1:09.8	Join us for as little as $1 a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowery Boys.
1:18.8	Hi there, welcome to The Bowery Boys. This is Greg Young.
1:21.4	And this is Tom Myers.
1:22.8	And in today's show, we're going to be taking you back to a world that will seem very foreign.
1:29.7	A world where there are not tens of billions of photographs taken on a daily basis from digital screens.
1:38.3	A world where actually the photograph is a rare and special and even a beautiful thing.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tom Meyers, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tom Meyers and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.