Interior of an Apartment on Broadway and Tenth Street, New York City
Not on view
This double-sided drawing documents four rooms in a lower Manhattan apartment, a rare nineteenth-century depiction of the interior of a working-class home. Its occupant was a German immigrant who proudly and carefully detailed the appearance of his living quarters and provided descriptive annotations, presumably for family members in Europe, as the paper’s fold lines suggest. This side of the sheet depicts opposite ends of his sitting room overlooking Broadway and Tenth Street. The space is furnished with inexpensive mass-produced furniture and adorned with personal touches, including a birdcage and small pictures surrounding a writing desk described (in translation) as “where I write letters to you all, and where I always sit in my spare time.”
