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Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Third Avenue El
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Held by the artist.

Third Avenue El

Artist/Maker (United States, 1898 - 1991)
Date1936 (printed 1979)
Mediumgelatin silver print
DimensionsSight: 19 1/8 x 15 1/4 in. (48.6 x 38.7 cm)
Mat: 30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm)
ClassificationsVisual Works
Credit LineGift of Safra Bank through Vito S. Portera
Terms
    Object number83.0141
    DescriptionElevated railways were first built in 1867 as an experiment, and then extended piecemeal around the city. A popular and essential means of transportation, sooty, steam powered trains circled and crisscrossed Manhattan on tracks, making the upper reaches of Manhattan accessible to the lower, and encouraging real estate development. Originally, the subway (the first section of underground, electrified tracks opened in 1904) connected to the elevated tracks, which towered above the avenues. It was not until the 1940s, by which time an expanded subway system serviced the rest of New York's boroughs, that Els were phased out, permanently altering Manhattan's cityscape. Berenice Abbott's use of black and white is especially effective in this composition, which, even as it preserves evidence of a disappearing rail system, also investigates abstract form.
    On View
    Not on view
    Collections
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Bowling Green, New York
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    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Street Vendors
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    Builders of Babylon
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    1949
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Chicken Market
    Berenice Abbott
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