Thursday, January 23, 2025 – Did you know that there were fresh water springs all over Manhattan?

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James Reuel Smith’s

New York City Springs

Thursday, January 23, 2025

ISSUE #1375

NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

FROM THE STACKS

This post was written by Luis Rodriguez, Collections Management Specialist 

By 1897, New York City was well on its way toward being the roaring metropolis of steel and concrete that we know today. Elevator cars were carrying passengers up and down in the earliest skyscrapers, while the elevated rail lines stretched further and further uptown. It was then that James Reuel Smith embarked upon his quest to document a particular feature of the city’s vanishing pastoral life—its springs and wells. Traveling by bicycle, Smith explored the upper half of Manhattan and much of the Bronx looking for and photographing those places where New Yorkers were still obtaining water without the necessity of an aqueduct or faucet.

James Reuel Smith. Unidentified girl drinking from a spring on the east side of Broadway between W. 184th and W. 185th Street, New York City. September 19, 1897. Glass plate negative. New-York Historical Society.

Springs were very important to Mr. Smith. He made careful notes regarding each aquiferous site, and he always had in mind the publication of his findings. His interest led him to travel around the Mediterranean region in search of the springs mentioned in classical literature, and this work resulted in the 1922 publication of Springs and Wells in Greek and Roman Literature, Their Legends and Locations.

James Reuel Smith. Central Park spring opposite E. 76th Street, 75 feet east of Sixth Avenue, New York City. April 2, 1898. Glass plate negative. New-York Historical Society

His study of New York City’s springs, however, was only published posthumously. When he died in 1935, his will directed that the New-York Historical Society should receive his photographs and papers, as well as some money, on the condition that it publish his then unknown work. The arrangement resulted in the 1938 publication of Springs and Wells of Manhattan and the Bronx: New York City at the End of the Nineteenth Century.

James Reuel Smith. Unidentified man drinking from the spring at E. 63rd Street, Central Park, 100 feet west of Fifth Avenue, New York City. October 26, 1897. Glass plate negative. New-York Historical Society.

In Smith’s introduction to the book, written around 1916, he reflects on the rapidly changing city and on the practical and aesthetic pleasures offered by the remaining springs: “In the days, not so very long ago, when nearly all the railroad mileage of the metropolis was to be found on the lower half of the Island, nothing was more cheering to the thirsty city tourist afoot or awheel than to discover a natural spring of clear cold water, and nothing quite so refreshing as a draught of it.”

James Reuel Smith. Unidentified woman drinking at Carman Spring, on W. 175th Street east of Amsterdam Avenue, New York City. undated [c. 1897-1902]. Glass plate negative. New-York Historical Society.

Many more of James Reuel Smith’s photographs can be found online at New York Heritage, where they are part of our “Photographs of New York City and Beyond” collection.

James Reuel Smith. Unidentified boy seated beside a spring on the Hudson River shore, east of the railroad tracks near the foot of W. 177th Street, New York City, September 25, 1897. Glass plate negative. New-York Historcal Society.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

LUNA has joined MOMO as a visiting dog at Coler.  She is looking forward to her new career.  MOMO had no comment but was glad to share her treats with the newcomer.

CREDITS

FROM THE STACKS NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
JUDITH BERDY

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