premiere partie: pomp of virtue.

mark twain dining at delmonicos, new york. late nineteenth century.

 as i am off to new york with friends tomorrow, i have spent most of my morning commute to work sifting through the myriad of perceptions of the city i've taken from films, books, visits and photographs over the years. jostling for attention, each idea or paradigm of the city i hold always loses out to the one i find the most romantic and the most far removed historically, new york in the second half of the nineteenth century. having spent a fair bit of time researching and reading on turn of the century social thought, i find this era in north america's, arguably, then most important city fascinating. a meeting of staunch victorian tradition and illusions of the yeoman's frontier, within this era in the city's history elegance and propriety clashed with the increasingly dark side of poverty and crime caused by an unprecedented flooding of people from rural to urban environments. the neighborhoods by the water were primarily supported by farming and shucking oysters which although now extinct in new york waters, were so plentiful in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that they were considered a poor man's nourishment. after dark these areas were characterized by prostitution, citations for lewdness and drunken brawls. this was in high contrast to the pomp of virtue that the most affluent members of the city put on. socializing at establishments such as delmonico's, the "upper crust", so to speak, of new york's citizens draped themselves in finery and bantered over seven course meals at north america's first fine dining establishment.

oyster stands in fulton market, 1870.

establishments like delmonico's were essential in creating the still burgeoning idea of what exactly, america was, culturally and socially. surrounding the time that the photo above of mark twain was taken the "new" americans were still battling the mohawk, sioux and iroquois tribes with legislation such as the indian removal act of 1830 and the indian appropriations act of 1871 and battles such as wounded knee in 1890. north america was a tumultuous place, very uncertain of its identity and disillusioned with what it was seemingly becoming, a crowded web of metropolises. increasing concerns in the period over poverty, general "immorality" and declining religious adherence motivated scores of women to become heavily involved in colonial-esque philanthropic ventures, typically concerning new immigrants to the city. roaming the streets in their petty coats and corsetted tops, these women, although from a modern historical perspective grossly misinformed by theories about biological determinism, were the precursors to eminent women's movements such as the suffragettes. it was as much these women (and their poorer counterparts who prostituted themselves or acted as barkeepers) as it was the class-obsessed and politically motivated men who made new york what it is today.

19th century tenement life, new york city. photo by jacob a. riis.

further reading
the big oyster: history of the half-shell by mark kurlansky
five points: the nineteenth century neighborhood that invented tap dance, stole elections and became the world's most notorious slum by tyler anbinder
the alienist by caleb carr
devil in the white city by eric lawson


a la prochaine....