Horse-drawn cart

[Horse-drawn cart], circa 1875, V1974.7.12; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Over the last several years, food trucks have been popping up all over Brooklyn, reflecting a nationwide trend. The photo of the week takes us back to around 1875, long before food truck rallies existed. In this photograph, a man is driving Flatbush Parlor Bakery’s horse-drawn food cart hawking breads, cakes and pies at Caton and Ocean Avenue in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The origins of today's food trucks can be traced back to pushcarts and chuck wagons in the mid-19^th century. Out west, chuck wagons, founded by Texas Rancher Charles Goodnight, served meals to cowhands moving herds across the plains to markets in the North and East. Pushcarts served the urban workers with simple lunches in New York and Chicago. Closer to home, oyster carts could be found along 19^th-century Fulton Street near the ferry.

The invention of the automobile led to significant changes in the history of food trucks. In the 1950s, ice cream trucks became omnipresent. Then, in the 1960s, mobile food trucks known as “roach coaches” appeared in an effort to serve blue-collar workers at construction sites and factories. You can view a photograph of a “mobile canteen” at the Brooklyn Navy Yard here.

A combination of factors led to the modern gourmet food truck movement. Some view the culinary success from Chef Roy Choi’s gourmet Korean taco truck, Kogi, as playing part in inspiring the food truck movement. The economic slump in the early 2000s was also a likely contributor to this phenomenon. Food trucks are a far less expensive opportunity for chefs to experiment and innovate. Since then, food trucks have taken on a whole new meaning with gourmet chefs and Zagat ratings.

The sign on the side of the cart in this photograph, as well as the handwritten text on the back stating that the man is “hawking breads, cakes, and pies,” indicates that this was likely an early food truck.  Like many of Adrian Vandereer Martense’s photographs, this photograph offers a unique, informal perspective of street scenes in Brooklyn during the last quarter of the 19^th century.  The Adrian Vanderveer Martense photographs collection contains lantern slides and photographs taken by Martense, an amateur photographer, from 1872-1889. To view more photographs from this collection, check out this gallery.

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. library@brooklynhistory.org