Blizzard?

[People in the street after the blizzard, Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue], March 15, 1888, V1974.7.77; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191, Brooklyn Historical Society.

Brooklyn is covered in snow this week! Pictured above is from the Blizzard of 1888, which hit New York City by surprise in March, with over 21 inches of snow. The New York Times reported on Tuesday, March 13, 1888, “It had a power of slinging the snow into doorways and packing it up against the doors; of sifting it through window frames of piling it up in high drifts at street corners, of twirling it into hard mounds around elevated station, such as most New-Yorkers had never seen before. For the first time in their lives they knew what a Western blizzard was.”

This weather is a perfect opportunity to highlight the Adrian Vanderveer Martense Collection. Amateur photographer Adrian Vanderveer Martense documented the scene above on Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue after the 1888 blizzard. Martense was a member of the Brooklyn Academy of Photography (which became the Brooklyn Camera Club in 1896) and photographed scenes and people in his Flatbush neighborhood. To view more of Martense’s photographs, including more from the Blizzard of 1888, check out this gallery. We also have a full profile of this collection via this post.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. photos@brooklynhistory.org

Source: Christiano, G.J., “The Blizzard of 1888; the Impact of this Devastating Storm on New York Transit.” Accessed here: http://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/The_Blizzard_of_1888%3B_the_Impact_of_this_Devastating_Storm_on_New_York_Transit