Vintage Photographs of Greenwich Village's Bohemian Partiers Over a Century Ago

A recent posting in The Vault, Slate's historical blog, historian Rebecca Onion tells the story of early American photographer Jessie Tarbox Beals and her personal life amongst the other free-thinking bohemians in the "Village".

In a series of photographs taken between 1910 and 1920, Jessie Tarbox Beals documented the parties and get-togethers of bohemian Greenwich Village. Beals also took posed portraits of denizens of the Village, some of which she sold as postcards to curiosity-seekers interested in seeing how the famously "liberated" men and women of the Village conducted their lives. These group shots of gatherings are the most casual of her Village images.

Matt Coneybeare

Matt Coneybeare

Editor in Chief

Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.

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