Photographic History Collection: Sam Falk
name: label: maker
content: Falk, Sam
notes: label: Description
content: Sam Falk was a photographer for The New York Times for over forty years. He began working at The Times in 1925 and was considered a pioneer in 35-millimeter photography. During his time at the paper he specialized in photographing famous people and events. This included touring with President Calvin Coolidge, covering the Lindbergh kidnapping trial, photographing finishes at the Kentucky Derby and documenting national political conventions and championship boxing matches. He was also in charge of press arrangements for ceremonies such as the Annual Exhibition of the Press Photographers Association of New York in 1948. His photographs were used in many exhibitions, including one at the Smithsonian Institution, which was up for fourteen months. Falk retired from the paper in 1969. In 1991, at the age of ninety, Sam Falk died in Sunrise, Florida. He was survived by his wife, Anne.
label: Description
content: Many of the photographs in the Photographic History Collection (PHC) collection were donated by Sam Falk in 1968. The PHC collection of Falk material consists of four hundred prints, along with negatives and a number of slides. Photographs were taken for The New York Times Magazine. Most of the photographs are of different city scenes, the majority in Manhattan. There are a number of duplicate prints. Subjects include architecture, American cities such as, Manhattan, Miami, and Detroit, and European cities, such as London, Florence, Paris, Vatican City, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Milan, and Toledo.
label: Description
content: There is a smaller selection of photographs of individuals or groups. Many of the individuals are famous in their own rite. These people include; Uta Hager, Marion Anderson, Mayor Fiorelli LaGuardia, Albert Einstein, Rudolph Bentz, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Duchamp, Vladimir Horowitz, Dick Gregory and Martha Graham. A section of Falk’s photographs are dedicated to big events. One photo, “Charles Lindbergh Parade up Broadway, April 23, 1927,” shows the massive crowds of people who came out for the affair. Another photograph is entitled, “The Day Franklin D. Roosevelt died.” It shows people sitting in a subway car, all reading newspapers about the death of the President.
label: Description
content: Falk’s photographs encompass a variety of different scenes of life between 1925 and 1969. His prints provide insight into the events and important people of the time period and help construct what was important in the lives of ordinary people.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
label: See more items in
content: Photography
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: COLL.PHOTOS.000026
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Sam Falk Collection