On a January day, 12-year-old Naomi King and her parents left their Indiana home for a vacation in New York City.
After arriving and meeting up with Naomi’s older sister Josie, a Manhattan resident, the family settled into the West 118th Street home of their host, a Mrs. Purdy.
Through early February they did what most first-time tourists do: they visited museums and Central Park (left), window-shopped stores, took in the Bowery, and saw the seashore at Coney Island.
What makes King’s visit so unique is that it occurred in January 1899.
And because King kept a travel diary (part of the Archives & Manuscripts Collection at the NYPL), contemporary readers get to experience the Gilded Age city as it appeared through her impressionable eyes.
Like any trend-driven tween, King wrote about the clothes displayed in stores like Stern’s (top image) in the Ladies Mile shopping district.
“We got off [the Broadway car] at 23rd Street and Josie took us to the Stern Brothers, one of the large and select dry goods houses where we saw the latest fashions,” she wrote.
She saw “all the new spring styles [and] the new spring color: amethyst, purple, or violet in all shades [and] stripes extending to gentlemen’s cravats in Roman colors.”
The family strolled the mall in Central Park “under the arches of the beautiful trees whose branches interlaced overhead” and saw the bandstand (above) “where Sousa’s celebrated band plays all during the summer. . . . “
They were impressed by the lions (left) and hippos at the zoo. “Beside [the lions was] the royal Bengal tiger and his mate next to him in a separate cage, while a horrid hyena paced up and down his cage.”
King and her parents gawked at the mansions of Fifth Avenue. “We passed Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt’s mansion, Mrs. W.K. Vanderbilt’s elegant residence (below right). . . . “
“A little farther on we saw old Mr. Vanderbilt’s residence and a wealthy gentleman Mr. Rockefeller whose mansion is even finer than the Vanderbilts.'”
For reasons that aren’t clear, the family visited some of the city’s notorious charitable institutions, which King wrote about movingly.
On Randall’s Island at the House of Refuge (below), kind of a 19th century reform school, she saw boys working in the institution’s laundry department.
“We passed however a large hall of locked cells which the larger boys sleep,” she wrote. “They lock them up to prevent making their escape.”
Also on Randall’s Island, she was distraught by a hospital for abandoned babies—a terrible problem in the post–Civil War city.
“We . . . went to the baby residence, the home of the little waifs who were picked up out of the city’s ash barrels and dark alleyways. They looked so frail in their white cot beds. . . . There are so many babies and yet not one little face that looked like another.”
What became of King after her visit I wish I knew.
But her travel diary stands as a testament to the wonder and tragedy of New York on the cusp of the 20th century.
The Gilded Age in New York includes these excerpts from King’s diary—as well as diary excerpts from other New Yorkers of the era. Many thanks to the NYPL for permission to cite the text in the book.
[Top three photos: NYPL Digital Collection; fourth photo, MCNY: 93.1.1.18316; sixth photo, MCNY: 91.69.1811915]
Tags: Fifth Avenue mansions 1890s, Foundlings 19th century NYC, House of Refuge Randall's Island, Naomi R. King travel diary, New York in 1899, travel diary New York City
Ephemeral New York 
January 16, 2017 at 10:59 am |
Can’t wait to see the book. Congratulations!
January 16, 2017 at 6:49 pm |
Thank you!
January 16, 2017 at 1:14 pm |
Any other details of Ms King? (Parents names or hometown?). I found a Neomi R. King in Indianapolis in the 1900 census. Had three older sisters at home in their 20s, so another older one away in NYC would be possible. Father’s occupation “Insurance”, so no obvious clue about visiting charities.
January 16, 2017 at 4:11 pm |
Nice post. I found “Neomi” King, age 13, in the 1900 census of Indianapolis (E. 10th Street) living with her parents & 3 of her sisters, Amy, Grace, and Helen. She’s also in the 1910 census, living in Indianapolis with another sister, Nellie Barth, Nellie’s husband and their children, and Naomi’s and Nellie’s sister Amy. She’s working as a stenographer on a steam railroad. No luck with the 1920 census or a marriage record.
November 29, 2022 at 1:28 am |
What I just found: in 1915 Naomi married Louis Hiram Saunders of Lansing, Michigan, a salesman for an auto company, and they lived on the outskirts of Detroit (Birmingham, Highland Park) throughout their married life. She was a stenographer until their son Jack was born in 1918. Hiram passed away in 1929 at the age of 42, and Naomi passed away in 1976 at the age of 88. Many thanks to ephemeralnewyork for telling us about her wonderful travel journal (and for every one of your excellent posts, as well).
December 3, 2022 at 2:44 pm
thanks Julie, for filling in more of of her backstory. What a life—I only wish a researcher found her before she passed away to see if she could tell us more of her 1899 New York City trip.
January 16, 2017 at 6:50 pm |
Great sleuthing. I don’t have any info on her, unfortunately. I think a deep dive is needed.
January 17, 2017 at 9:06 pm |
The Sterns’s building in the postcard at the top of this post still exists as part of the trio of buildings Home Depot occupies. I believe its the westmost section…the 3rd floor arched window has disappeared, but the cornice is exactly the same.
April 23, 2018 at 5:43 am |
[…] It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it. Sidewalks in late 19th century New York were lined with ash barrels—where people dumped the ashes from their furnaces as well as rotting food and household refuse. (And very sadly, infants too.) […]
April 24, 2018 at 5:24 am |
I would love to read the whole diary. I wonder if they have digitised or are digitising their whole archive. I love the way even young people wrote then; such as her description of “Roman colors” here.
April 25, 2018 at 3:16 am |
[…] It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it. Sidewalks in late 19th century New York were lined with ash barrels—where people dumped the ashes from their furnaces as well as rotting food and household refuse. (And very sadly, infants too.) […]
October 29, 2018 at 2:35 am |
[…] This one isn’t focused on NYHoR, but it is the travel diary of a young girl in 1899, and the… […]
April 5, 2021 at 4:18 am |
[…] Brothers, one of the large and select dry goods houses where we saw the latest fashions,” wrote 12-year-old Naomi King, who kept a travel diary of her visit to the city with her parents from Indiana in […]
November 29, 2022 at 1:32 am |
Is the entirety of Naomi’s journal in the NYPL Digital Collections, by chance?
December 3, 2022 at 2:44 pm |
It’s not digitized, but it is part of the collection at the NYPL. You can request to access it.
December 3, 2022 at 9:34 pm
Thanks! I could (and have) spent hours perusing the NYPL Digital Collection. What a treasure trove!
March 23, 2024 at 12:16 pm |
Awesome stories. I have been captivated for an hour sending articles to my sister who still lives on Long Island and has an apartment in New York City upper west side. She loves the city and I wanted to share . Thank you for the stories .