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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.710410222
EAN num: 9781588341631
ISBN number: 1588341631
Label: Smithsonian
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 160
Printing Date: April 17, 2004
Publishing house: Smithsonian
Sale Popularity Level: 1154045
Studio: Smithsonian
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A stunning collection of photographs capturing the pinnacle of maritime Manhattan.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the Port of New York was the center of a huge maritime enterprise. Through this hub passed vessels and cargoes of every description, heading to or arriving from anywhere and everywhere around the globe. For much of the very first half of the twentieth century, it was here that America's commerce with Europe and Central and South America converged. In this busiest port in the world, seasoned sailors and fishermen, international traders, muscled longshoremen, barge brats, and yachters shaped and shared New York's waterfront world. By 1960 maritime New York had greatly diminished, eclipsed by more efficient operations elsewhere. Fortunately, a small cadre of commercial photographers documented the dynamic social, economic, and political forces in the heyday of the wharves, waterways, and waterfront markets, capturing for the ages the gritty and sometimes glamorous life of the docks and their environs. 137 duotones.
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Rated by buyers -
SEAPORT presents a wonderful collection of photographs of scenes in and around the Port of New York, mostly from the late 19th century into the 1930s. The photos, from the Edwin Levick Collection at the Mariners Museum in Virginia, are very nicely printed, mostly one to a page with a sprinkling of two-page spreads. They cover a wide range of port activities, from harbor views to many dockside scenes. The photos really are a treasure.
It's a shame Smithsonian Books couldn't find someone qualified to write about the photos. Phillip Lopate's text at the front of the book is largely filled with the kind of patronizing over-indulgence often found among well-to-do people who rarely get their hands dirty. To his credit, he does provide some interesting background and detail about the two primary photographers from whom the book's prints come. He misses, though, an enormous amount of detail about the subjects of the photos - and several glaring errors show that he either has no idea what he's writing about, or he dashed off the captions in such a hurry as to not spend more than a few seconds looking at the photos.
The captions are all too brief - a pity, since an essay could be written about virtually every one. A shot on page 100 of a foreman examining the wooden hull of a small yacht hauled out on a marine railway is captioned simply "Reparing the UNCOWA." On the facing page a stern shot of a small cargo ship having its rudder shipped on the building ways is captioned "Stern of the HICKMAN in dry dock." In his opening text Lopate refers to this shot as showing the vast bulk of a huge ship looming over the workers - Lopate obviously has never seen a really big ship, or a dry dock for that matter (does he know what one is?) - there are no dock walls in this photo, and building scaffolding for an adjoining ship is clearly visible.
Lopate misidentifies the liner German-built liner MAJESTIC as a sistership of the Belfast-built TITANIC - too bad he hasn't read any books about ocean liners.
On page 116 is a photo of Gertrude Vanderbilt christening the sharp pointed prow of the sailing yacht VIRGINIA; on the facing page 117 is a shot of the launch of the 12,000-ton ocean liner VIRGINIA - in his text Lopate says the photos are of the same ship.
Get some glasses, professor.
On page 71 is an image of the three-masted square rigger SUOMEN JOUTSEN in 1937. Lopate's caption simply says the heyday of sail was long past and the ship may have been on a sail-training voyage. Well, professor, a quick Google of the name would have revealed the ship was indeed a Norwegian sail-training ship - and is actually still in existence. No need to guess when a little research could have provided a quick answer.
So much more could have been done in describing and writing about virtually every image, but that is a task clearly beyond Lopate. The dust jacket says he is a professor of English and author of "critically acclaimed essay collections" and a new history of the Port of New York. I can't imagine anything he's published about New York or ports or waterfronts would be of any use other than landfill.
Buy the book, though - - the photos really are great, and at a very good price for a work of this publishing quality.
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