untitled (cigar store, New York)

© Berenice Abbott / Commerce Graphics Ltd.

untitled (cigar store, New York)

Currently not on view

untitled (cigar store, New York),

ca. 1935

Berenice Abbott, 1898–1991; born Springfield, OH; died Monson, ME
2004-397
While working in France in the 1920s, Abbott became enamored of Eugene Atget’s photographic documentation of Paris. She decided upon her return to the United States in 1929 to reproduce Atget’s project in New York. Funded by the Federal Art Project, Abbott used a large-format camera to take hundreds of photographs of the city. In this image, we see the so-called cigar store Indians that drew on the association between Native Americans and tobacco. These sidewalk sculptures were scarce by the early 1940s due to sidewalk laws, increased racial sensitivity, and a decreased need to advertise to illiterate clientele. This photograph therefore typifies the widespread societal change in New York that was at the heart of Abbott’s project.

Information

Title
untitled (cigar store, New York)
Dates

ca. 1935

Maker
Berenice Abbott
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
24 x 19 cm. (9 7/16 x 7 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Carlton Willers
Object Number
2004-397
Inscription
Stamped in ink, verso center: BERENICE ABBOTT/ PHOTOGRAPH/ 50 COMMERCE STREET/ NEW YORK 14, N.Y. Signed/inscribed in ink, verso right center: To C. Willers/ Berenice Abbott Inscribed in pencil, verso, lower right: vintage print / c. 1930s
Culture
American
Type
photographs, black-and-white photographs
Techniques
gelatin silver process
Subject
cigar-store Indians, gelatin silver process, gelatin silver prints

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