Vintage Photograph of a Horse Drawn New York Street Cleaning Cart Circa 1915

The Lively Morgue is a daily photo blog from the New York Times in which an original photo from the newspaper's archives is reposted along with tidbits of information gleaned from the historical article it accompanied. Along with a rescan of the original photograph, the backs of each photo are also scanned, giving a behind-the-scenes look at the editorial process of one of the world's best newspapers.

Today's photo features a horse drawn street cleaning cart and sanitation worker from 1915.

“A street-cleaning cart in New York City, where there were said to be 450 of them in 1915. Earlier that year, The Times reported on other improvements to the city’s streets, at a meeting held at Columbia University by the three borough presidents and John T. Fetherston, street-cleaning commissioner. The four men “discussed the planning, construction and maintenance of public highways and public works and street cleaning before an audience including many of the prettiest young women students in the university,” The Times reported. The audience was attentive, “but the women particularly became enthusiastic when President Marks told them of his fight for free public markets,” the report continued. Alas, that topic was not on the agenda. Boasting about the borough with the most asphalt (Brooklyn), however, was.”