Idle

Idle, circa 1887, V1972.1.1253; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.

I couldn’t help but chuckle when a colleague pointed out this photograph from our collections. I had so many questions. Who is this young woman? Why is she strumming a broom like a banjo? And why did the photographer title this work “Idle”? That’s the fun part about working in a historical archive—stumbling upon something surprising from the past and trying to make sense of it today. Whoever this person was, it’s fun to see a bit of humor among the many serious portraits during the late 1880s. How do you react to this photograph?

This photograph by amateur photographer Walter H. Nelson was taken around 1887 and comes from the Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection. This collection is comprised of roughly 1,400 black-and-white photographs taken by various (mostly amateur) photographers between 1860 and 1920. That majority of the photographs depicts view of Brooklyn and Suffolk County, including many photographs of Coney Island and Prospect Park. 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