New York City in the Great Depression: Sheltering the Homeless

Description: Following the stock market crash of 1929, the rising unemployment rate and widespread depression made it necessary for the city of New York to provide more commodious quarters for the city's homeless. New York City in the Great Depression: Sheltering the Homeless is a pictorial history of the shelters provided by the city during the Great Depression, including the Municipal Lodging House and its annexes in Manhattan, the farm colony at Camp LaGuardia, and the rehabilitation center at Hart Island. Archival photographs and documents depict the famous Great Depression breadlines, Mayor Jimmy Walker, Gov. Al Smith, and Tammany Hall, as well as the city's immigrants and tenement housing.

Review Quotes: Title: 63 Windows and What They Show
Author: Sam Roberts
Publisher: New York Times
Date: 11/27/09

As bad as the Great Recession is, "New York City in the Great Depression: Sheltering the Homeless" (Arcadia, $21.99), by Dorothy Laager Miller, is a reminder of how much worse things were back then. The stark black-and-white vintage photographs of municipal shelters and bread lines speak volumes.