Gotham Comes of Age

Book excerpt: "Arranged thematically, the photographs showcased here are but a sampling from about 22,000 images produced by the Byron Company's New York City commercial studio over a 50-year period. And for 40 of those years, Mrs. Joseph Byron oversaw the photo-printing work for what is usually thought of as a father-and-son enterprise. The Museum of the City of New York acquired the negatives and prints when the firm closed in 1942. Three earlier books on the Byron Collection failed to show the breadth of the collection, which was recently revealed during an archiving project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. With their large-format cameras, the Byrons went beyond the sheltered world of the upper classes in their elegant houses and ocean liners. Also included are documentary images of Lower East Side tenements, recently arrived steerage passengers, and the African American neighborhood west of Columbus Circle. The reproduction quality here is excellent, and the interpretive captions lend meaning to these definitive views of early 20th-century New York City. Highly recommended for photography, architecture, and urban studies collections. Kathleen Collins, Bank of America Archives, San Francisco"--Library Journal