When you’re used to seeing the mid-century city in grainy black and white or stylized shades of gray, Charles Weever Cushman’s vivid, explosive color photos are a revelation.
[Below: “Poverty, young and old, black and white,” October 4, 1942]
An editor turned statistician from the Midwest who pursued photography as a hobby, Cushman traveled extensively and took photos wherever he went. From 1938 to 1969 he shot landscapes, landmarks, and ordinary people all across America.
But it’s his incredible scenes from the shopworn, slightly tattered nooks and corners of mostly World War II-era New York that are most captivating.
[Above: “Residents of lower Clinton Street near East River Saturday afternoon,” September 27, 1941]
In these Kodachrome color images, he aimed his lens at corner bars and luncheonettes, pedestrians on stoops and sidewalks, and other bits of day-to-day life that may not have seemed so remarkable then but today feel poetic and serendipitous.
[Above: “A busy corner of Pearl Street at noon,” October 7, 1942]
After his death in 1972, 14,500 of his Kodachrome slides were donated to his alma mater, Indiana University. The university digitized his entire collection.
[Below, “Three bums from South Ferry Flophouses” at Battery Park, June 6, 1941]
Cushman (below) kept detailed notes about each photo he took, but who he was and what he was hoping to preserve are shrouded in mystery. His second wife reportedly had this to say, via the biography about him on the Indiana University archives website:
“Charles was a shrewd individual . . . a sharp evaluator of people, and was very prudent and shrewd in his securities selection. He loved life—music, good books, sports, the outdoors, travel, integrity . . . and could not tolerate ignorance.”
[All photos copyright Charles W. Cushman Photography Collection/Indiana University Archives]
Tags: 1940s New York Street, Bowery bum 1940s, Charles Cushman color photos, Charles Weever Cushman, Lower Manhattan 1940s, New York City in color, New York Street in color, Pearl Street 1940s, Street photographers New York City
Ephemeral New York 
February 13, 2013 at 5:41 am |
“Bums” in the 1940s dressed better than most of us do today!
February 13, 2013 at 2:07 pm |
I was also wondering about the use of the word “bum” in this one….
February 13, 2013 at 6:17 pm
“Bum” is Cushman’s word. But that’s what we called homeless men on the streets and in parks before in the 1970s too.
February 13, 2013 at 5:34 pm |
old color pictures really are a revelation. it’s still jarring to me to see that old dress styles were as bright as any today.
February 13, 2013 at 6:16 pm |
I know what you mean. When you’re used to seeing black and white images and movies, it’s easy to forget that the world was in full color before the 1950s!
February 14, 2013 at 1:20 am |
Thanks again for an illuminating post.
February 14, 2013 at 2:04 am |
Thank Indiana U. for digitizing these amazing photos!
February 23, 2013 at 3:26 am |
Now I want to see all of them!
January 13, 2014 at 4:33 am |
[…] of his color photos capture ordinary street scenes in New York in the early 1940s. Here, some salvage collectors on a Lower East Side street in October 1941 recycle the […]
January 13, 2014 at 9:17 am |
The Clinton St pics link through to the Pearl St page at Indiana?
January 14, 2014 at 6:47 am |
These photos are fab, what a gift to leave.
January 14, 2014 at 7:01 am |
Those “3 bums” look better dressed than most businessmen do today!
January 29, 2014 at 2:24 am |
Indiana University’s archive of Cushman’s photos is astounding. If you get a chance, check it out, and be prepared to spend hours enjoying it!
March 18, 2020 at 8:33 pm |
[…] Ephemeral NY: Charles Cushman’s Color 1940s NYC […]