Shoes-peddler, Lower East Side

Percy Loomis Sperr, 1890–1964

“Shoes–peddler, Lower East Side”

New York, ca. 1930–34

Percy Loomis Sperr was an American photographer best known for his meticulous documentation of the streets of New York in the 1920s through the 1940s. This resulted in more than 30,000 images for The New York Public Library’s “Streetscape and Townscape of Metropolitan New York City, 1860–1942” project as well as for the “New York City, Immigrant Life” project. During this period, Sperr was an employee of the Library, working primarily in the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division. His librarian’s skills and access to the relevant resources added depth to his systematic explorations of the city. What makes the results of his work even more impressive  is that this man with his small, simple camera was walking dozens of miles around the city’s five boroughs on crutches, as his right leg was paralyzed from childhood.

In terms of the studies of New York’s Jewish neighborhoods, Sperr’s collection is a precious gift and a trove of information on what the theaters, synagogues, shops, and tenement houses looked like in those days, and how life was conducted on the streets around these buildings. Sperr’s photographs reflected his fascination with immigrant communities and people in general, thus preserving for us many street scenes that enhance our understanding of these neighborhoods in the context of daily life for that time.

In this photograph, one can imagine a lively conversation taking place between the elderly shoe peddler in a weathered coat and hat, whom Sperr characterized as “itinerant,” clutching several pairs of women’s and men’s second-hand shoes, and the younger, fashionably dressed customer. They are likely bargaining over a possible purchase while standing in the middle of the pavement on one of the bustling market days on the Lower East Side. The photograph dates to the early 1930s and offers a glimpse into this moment of exchange between generations and styles.