Spectacle Is Timeless

From “1922 – 1940” (according to the New York Public Library) a postcard of “Bryant Park in 1853”: Except, of course, it wasn’t Bryant Park then (a) because it wasn’t a park, just vacant land behind the big distribution reservoir located where the NYPL is now and (b) William Cullen Bryant was, in 1853, a late-middle-aged poet and newspaper editor who was well-known but not yet someone you’d name a park after. As is so often true, the postcard image was very low resolution. This 1853 engraving appears to be the source image (flipped left to right): It’s not possible to determine which orientation is correct, because both images are wrong. The Crystal Palace was on the site of Reservoir Square/Bryant Park, between 40th and 42nd Streets, east of Sixth Avenue; Latting Observatory (the tall braced tower) was across the street on the north side of 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. If the view is from the west, the postcard has the correct arrangement, but the picture is missing…