Figure 1.-- The photograph here is from about 1910 of the interior of the Seward Park Library, a Lower East Side neighborhood branch library in New York City. Note the librarian's floor-length skirt and the school children's clothes. The boys, who seem to be about 9 or 10 years old, wear knickers buckled below the knee with long black stockings.

Many of the activities here are active outdoor activities. Not all boys were athletically inclined. Even those that were had occassion to visit the local public libary system. This was both to check out reading material and to do research for school. America in particular developed a superb public library system. Many American public libraries were establish through philanthropic contributions. Andrew Carnege in America played an important role in launching public libraries.This allowed even low income families access to books for their children. We are less sure about the libraries in other countries.

America

The photograph here is from about 1910 of the interior of the Seward Park Library, a Lower East Side neighborhood branch library in New York City. Note the librarian's floor-length skirt and the school children's clothes. The boys, who seem to be about 9 or 10 years old, wear knickers buckled below the knee with long black stockings. The boy speaking to the librarian wears a white shirt with a necktie. Notice also his hightop shoes typical of the period. These are local school children who came to the library for a quiet place to study. They probably lived in somewhat crowded and chaotic houses or apartments on the Lower East Side. Early in the 20th century, this area housed a working-class population occupied by tenement dwellers and sweatshop workers. There was quite a bit of ethnic diversity because the area was largely made up of recent imigrants to the city. The Library helped local families in their struggle to learn English. During the Great Depression some of the library staff spoke Yiddish to help cope with imigrant Jewish families. The Seward Park Library was opened in 1909 and is still operating. At the time of this photograph, it was so new that the book shelves are still mostly empty. It was a branch of the New York Public Library.

England

France

Germany

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Created: May 12, 2004, 2004
Last updated: May 12, 2004