From November 18th to the 23rd, 1953, a stagnant air mass trapped high levels of air pollution over New York City. The city’s Department of Air Pollution Control (which had opened earlier that year) was flooded with calls from residents reporting coughing and eye irritation. A 1962 analysis of mortality data found excess deaths between 18-26 persons a day during the event.
The second-to-last day of the smog coincided with the Williamsburg Settlement bazaar at the Bedford Atlantic Armory. Along with selling all manner of merchandise to raise money for neighborhood maintenance in the Settlement, the bazaar offered free smog masks donated by the manufacturer. The surgical gauze masks were modeled on those worn a year earlier during the 1952 London smog—an air pollution event that is estimated to have killed over 10,000 in the UK.
Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
Post a Comment
While BPL encourages an open forum, posts and comments are moderated by library staff. BPL reserves the right, within its sole discretion, not to post and to remove submissions or comments that are unlawful or violate this policy. While comments will not be edited by BPL personnel, a comment may be deleted if it violates our comment policy.
eNews Signup
Get the latest updates from BPL and be the first to know about new programs, author talks, exciting events and opportunities to support your local library.