Heart of Coney Island
  • Coney Island History
  • Tourist Info
  • About
  • Contact

Coney Island History: Doctored Images and Photograph Gallery


Picture
'Doctored' photograph of Feltman's Deutscher Garten in 1908. Can you find Waldo? (Hint: He's at the right, third row, with a curious mustache.)
These images are from the author's collection of rare souvenir viewbooks dating from 1904 through 1909.  Pair these images with the Historical Map to see Coney Island over one hundred years ago.  Images are arranged alphabetically within categories.  Click on an image for a larger pop-up version, and then use your keyboard's left/right arrow keys to scroll through the images.

Doctored Images
Picture
The original photograph.
Picture
No more power lines? And nice flag atop the Iron Tower.
Picture
Add a moon and now it's night. The Loop the Loop looks better in white. And zap the power lines, but keep the poles.
Edwardians loved to Photoshop as much as a Millennial likes posting pictures to Facebook.  Postcard manufacturers could take the exact same photograph of the Loop the Loop on Surf Avenue and print it in black and white, or send it off to a studio where artists who likely had never even been to Coney Island would color it whatever colors they happened to like that day... or night.  Sometimes, they would draw people into scenes, or change statues and buildings to suit their liking.  This is what makes it tricky to rely exclusively on postcards when doing historical research on Coney Island.

Photographs in supposedly-official viewbooks weren't exempt from touches of piracy, either.  Wouldn't that nice shot - taken from the top of the chutes at Dreamland - look better with a gentleman smoking a cigar in the foreground at the left?  Yes!  Let's draw him in.  Just make sure he's facing away, because drawing a face is a lot more tedious than drawing the back of his head!
Picture
'Doctored' image from 'Glimpses of C.I.' (1904)

Panoramic Photographs
Dreamland, Iron Tower & ZIZ
Luna Park, Inaugural Season (1903)
Surf Avenue, facing west from Dreamland Tower
Surf Avenue, facing west from Iron Tower
Dreamland (Library of Congress)
Luna Park (Library of Congress)
Independent Rides & Attractions
Cannon Coaster
County Fair & Scenic Musical Railway
Deluge (Johnstown Flood Building)
Galveston Flood
Hit the Baby
Iron Tower
Japanese Ball Game
Loop the Loop
Loop the Loop & Surf Avenue
Loop the Loop & Surf Avenue
New York to the North Pole
Old Mill
Rifle Practice
Ring the Cane
Roosevelt's Rough Riders
Star Double Toboggan Racer
ZIZ Coaster at Feltman's
ZIZ Coaster at Feltman's
Street Views, Hotels, Restaurants, Food Stands and More
Balmer's Baths
Bank
Beach
Bowery, view from Steeplechase
Bowery and Stratton & Henderson's Walk
Brighton Beach Boardwalk & Brighton Inn
Brighton Beach Hotel
Brighton Beach Race Course
Concourse Park & Surf Avenue
Cow (Ice Cream & Moxie)
Feltman's & ZIZ
Feltman's Cafe
Feltman's Carousel
Feltman's Deutscher Garten
Feltman's Deutscher Garten
Henderson's Restaurant & Music Hall
Henderson's Dining Room
Henderson's Music Hall
Inman's (Cast of HMS Pinafore)
Iron Tower
Manhattan Beach Hotel
Oriental Hotel
Pabst Loop
Prospect Hotel
Reception Hospital
Rescue Mission
Railroad Station (BRT at Stillwell & Surf)
Bowery, facing east
Surf Avenue, facing east
Surf Avenue, facing west

Return to Coney Island History Homepage
Copyright © 2015  David A. Sullivan  |  WWW.HEARTOFCONEYISLAND.COM  |  All Rights Reserved
  • Coney Island History
  • Tourist Info
  • About
  • Contact