Today, Fulton Mall is a bustling shopping district in Downtown Brooklyn. During the late-Victorian / early-Edwardian eras (think 1880-1910), it was the preeminent thoroughfare for fashionable shopping in Brooklyn. With monumental department stores like Abraham & Straus and impeccable restaurants like Gage & Tollner, shoppers and window shoppers alike teamed Fulton Street to see everything from the latest wedding trousseau to mourning veils, and penny candy to soft clam bellies in Duxbury stew. While most of these businesses no longer exist, many of their architectural remains can be found behind and above their modern facades.

Explore this endearing mode of mass transit that disappeared from New York City's streets in the mid 20th century.

The features of the modern-day clown are said to come from multiple mediums: the British theater of Joseph Grimaldi, the early circus of Philip Astley, and Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. The clown is a derivative of the Ancient Greek and Roman Zanni, or "rustic fool." Initially created as an accompaniment to the witty Harlequin, the clown has evolved into the stand-alone character we are familiar with today.