A Monday Washing, New York City
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Frames ship to U.S. addresses only. Framed prints ship in 2–4 weeks and are final sale. Full framing details
Add Custom Frame
Frames ship to U.S. addresses only. Framed prints ship in 2–4 weeks and are final sale. Full framing details
Add Custom Frame
Frames ship to U.S. addresses only. Framed prints ship in 2–4 weeks and are final sale. Full framing details
Published in 1900 by the Detroit Photographic Company, A Monday Washing, New York City is much more than just a stunning, nostalgic visual. The scene was typical of what was known as the weekly and city-wide "hard wash day" (usually Monday) in tenement buildings throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Plentiful rows of laundry would be strung on lines high above the street, across the buildings’ facades. Uniting households in the then-common practice of hanging one's clothes out to dry, the lines' carefully fastened flapping fabric resembles Tiebetan prayer flags. Truly, there was faith involved that your clothing (which back then, especially for working-class folks, was precious and worn threadbare) would be safely reeled back in.
If taken as gospel, one might be convinced by the image that everyone in this densely populated neighborhood matched, and only wore pastel blue, stark white or pale pink. Of course, that's not accurate. Photolithography, and more specifically Photochrom, the process by which this image was made, involves hand-painting parts of a black and white photographic negative, then transferring that image onto a lithographic plate using colored gels. This then produced a colored print. The photographer would either rely on imagination or, more often, take detailed notes about the colors they felt were important to represent in a given image when undertaking the detailed process. In the end, like the true colors of the laundry in A Monday Washing, New York City, the real life hues represented in any photolithographic piece will never be known.
Detroit Photographic Company, also known as Detroit Publishing Company and Detroit Photochrom Company, was one of the world's major image publishers from 1895 to 1924, and the first and only entity in the United States to license the Photochrom process. Once the Detroit Photographic Company got its hands on the approach, the company was able to mass market photographic prints, postcards, and other materials.
Photolithography, and more specifically Photochrom, the process by which this image was made, involves hand-painting parts of a black and white photographic negative, then transferring that image onto a lithographic plate using colored gels. This then produced a colored print. The photographer would either rely on imagination or, more often, take detailed notes about the colors they felt were important to represent in a given image when undertaking the detailed process.
During its some 30 years of business, Detroit Photographic Co. amassed an archive of over 40,000 negatives. Everything from postcards to panoramas to fine art prints were created and sold by mail order, door to door salesmen, and in retail locations: American history was both made and preserved.