With the influx of Jewish Yiddish-speaking immigrants to New York, the audience for Yiddish publications grew. Forward publisher Louis Miller proposed the title Forverts – Forward in English – transliterated from Vorwärts, the German Socialist Democratic party newspaper, whose ideals inspired the Forward’s founders. These images help tell the story of the Forward newspaper itself, whose daily updates of local and international news helped shaped a way of life for Jewish immigrants for generations.

The history of organized outdoor play for children in New York goes back over 100 years, reflecting the social and cultural issues throughout.

Camp Vacamas, started in 1924, is a sleepaway camp originally located Upstate in the Catskills, in Kingston, N.Y. Founded by several Jewish organizations including The Forward, the name is an acronym of the East Side Vacation Camp Association. The camp is now located in West Milford, N.J. and is still called Camp Vacamas.

Bundled to keep warm, this woman stands with a pile of Forward and other newspapers to sell on the Lower East Side. Selling newspapers was not just a job for the “newsies,” street-smart, impoverished child laborers who hawked them on the streets. It was a rough-and- tumble game, with vendors zealously guarding their territory. East Broadway was hub for Yiddish papers, though they were widely sold throughout the City.

On June 5th, 1870 Jacob Riis arrived in New York with 40$ and a revolver. Riis was one of the millions of immigrants arriving on the shores of the United States at the end of the 19th century. Seeking a better life, the immigrants were packed into the tenements and slums of New York. In the 1880s, the Lower East Side was the most densely populated place in the world. Riis's documentation of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods would make him famous and drive a reformist movement.

As NYC begins to re-open after a prolonged period of quarantine, it’s a fitting moment to look back at these remarkable tenant portraits taken by HPD photographer Larry Racioppo in the late 1980s and 1990s. Archived at the Department of Records, the photos depict residents of distressed apartment buildings where HPD was stepping in to help; whether by conducting inspections, undertaking repairs, overhauling building management, or filling empty units. Through chance encounters, Racioppo was able to capture glimpses of home life that would have otherwise gone unseen. Now during the COVID-19 crisis, the photos feel especially resonant.

After the 1929 stock market crash and ensuing Great Depression, selling apples became a popular way to help now-unemployed New Yorkers eke out a living.