Above: Sledding in Brooklyn Heights, from the corner of Henry and Joralemon Streets, according to the caption, ca. 1872-1887. (Photographed by George Bernard Brainerd, courtesy Brooklyn Museum)
So far this has been pretty much been a low-accumulation winter in New York City, with only a half-inch of measured snow in Central Park so far this season. The worst snowfall was technically last fall, with that sloppy Nor’easter which hit just a few days after Sandy.
But many of New York City’s most powerful blizzards have actually occurred in the months of February and March — from the legendary Blizzard of 1888 to the most recent Snowicane from February 2010.
These images of a snowy city gone by will feel less interesting once the next big snowstorm happens. But until then, enjoy! And have a wonderful Martin Luther King Jr. Day and safe travels if you’re headed to the presidential inauguration.
Click on the pictures for a larger view. In particular, the picture at top and the 1914 photo below definitely have some spectacular details seen up close:
Somewhere in Brooklyn, 1888. Yes, that’s a dog in the sled. (Photographed by Breading G. Way. Courtesy Brooklyn Museum)
Streets of snow in Harlem after a February blizzard in 1899. (LOC)
Manhattan streets after 1905 and 1910 snowstorms, rough going for horse-drawn vehicles. (LOC)
In the throes of a 1914 blizzard, literally stopping streetcars in their tracks. (LOC)
1948. (Courtesy LIFE/Cornell Capa)
And children in Central Park in 1954. Not so different from the scene above taken forty years earlier! (Peter Stackpole/LIFE)
George Washington, draped in snow on Wall Street, at the sub-treasury building (today Federal Hall), 1888. (LOC)
Seems they might have had the same idea one hundred years ago. The headline from the New York Tribune on January 19, 1913:
