HINE LEWIS W (1874 1940) Hebrew Patriarch Ellis Island

Sale 2124 - Lot 57

Price Realized: $ 9,600

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000

HINE, LEWIS W. (1874-1940)
"Hebrew Patriarch, Ellis Island." Silver contact print, 7x5 inches (17.78x12.7 cm.), with Hine's handwritten caption, in pencil, on verso. Circa 1905

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Additional Details

From the Goldstrom Gallery, New York, to the NYNEX Corporation Collection; to a private collector.

Lewis W. Hine, 13.

A scarce vintage print from Hine's first body of work as a photographer, at Ellis Island.

From 1904-1908 Hine taught nature study and geography at the Ethical Culture School, in New York City, an institution whose student body was composed of the children of the first wave of European immigrants. The school's principal, Frank Manny, suggested that Hine visit Ellis Island and photograph the new rush of eastern and western European immigrants--who were frequently disparaged in the popular press. Manny envisioned these fledgling Americans as the contemporary equivalent of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock. The men worked collaboratively, with Hine referring to Manny as his "caddy" (he ignited the volatile magnesium powder that illuminated his subjects in the dark and cavernous hallways of the processing center).