From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower: C. G. Hine's 1905 Photographic Survey of Broadway

From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower: C. G. Hine's 1905 Photographic Survey of Broadway - Paperback

$72.00
$72.00
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From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower: C. G. Hine's 1905 Photographic Survey of Broadway
  • From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower: C. G. Hine's 1905 Photographic Survey of Broadway
From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower: C. G. Hine's 1905 Photographic Survey of Broadway - Paperback

From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower: C. G. Hine's 1905 Photographic Survey of Broadway - Paperback

by Nick Yablon
$72.00
$72.00

Book Overview

Throughout 1905, an amateur photographer dedicated himself to capturing Broadway, from the bottom of Manhattan to the top. In sun, rain, and snow, at dawn and late at night, C. G. Hine depicted buildings that were threatened by rapid development: outmoded stores, hotels, and theaters, as well as workshops and shanties. His survey also foregrounded the street's other holdouts against change, such as sex workers, pushcart vendors, horses, and the trees and wildflowers of upper Manhattan. Hine ultimately assembled more than three hundred photographs, along with numerous newspaper clippings and a typed essay, into a three-volume album, titled "From the Sky Scraper to the Wild Flower."

Presenting striking images from Hine's album, this book offers a rare glimpse into the transformation of New York's built environment at the turn of the twentieth century. Nick Yablon explores Hine's connections to--and divergences from--movements and trends of the time, such as historic preservation, Pictorialist photography, botany, and bicycling. He curates a selection of Hine's photographs and investigates how they reveal deeper conflicts and tensions about urban development. From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower guides readers up Broadway block by block, casting light on New York's changing landscape, where signs of the modern clashed with vestiges of earlier eras.
ISBN9780231203531
Author Nick Yablon
PublisherColumbia University Press
GenreHistory, Arts, and Design
FormatPaperback
PublishedMay 2026
LanguageENG- English
Pages344
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Architecture History Nonfiction Photography

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More by Nick Yablon

From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower: C. G. Hine's 1905 Photographic Survey of Broadway

From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower: C. G. Hine's 1905 Photographic Survey of Broadway - Paperback

From the Skyscraper to the Wildflower: C. G. Hine's 1905 Photographic Survey of Broadway - Paperback

By Nick Yablon

About Nick Yablon

Nick Yablon is professor of history and American studies at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Untimely Ruins: An Archaeology of American Urban Modernity, 1819-1919 (2009) and Remembrance of Things Present: The Invention of the Time Capsule (2019).

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