Sport - Pool - An afternoon off 1906 - Side by Side

by Mike Savad

Title

Sport - Pool - An afternoon off 1906 - Side by Side

Artist

Mike Savad

Medium

Photograph - Hand Colored Photo

Description

Hand Colorized photo from 1906
Original title: Neighborhood House, Pool Room
Photographer: Harris & Ewing
Location: 456 N St SW, Washington DC

In the early 1900's, kids worked on the streets, they did it to make money for their family or themselves, there were no child labor laws like we have now. Kids would get into trouble, gamble, even smoke. So in some places they set up pool halls like this, just to get them off the streets.

This spot was known as the Neighborhood house, more than likely all these kids sold newspapers, the one kid in the front has darker fingertips, showing ink. I'm willing to bet these kids learned to hustle adults when they got older. The pennants in the background aren't sports teams, they represented different club names.

Also a fun tip, technically this is a billiards room. Every wonder why they call it pool? It comes from "betting pool" in other words they gambled on billiards and the word pool stuck to that.

I'm confused at what the camera did to this room, its skewed like a fun house mirror. Its both straight, angled and crooked at the same time. I was able to get some of the distortion out, I suppose the room was very slanted, but it would make game play either very hard or very easy. The year isn't exact, I'm going by the star pattern on the flag, which has a limit of 1896 to 1907, and the club was started in 1905. The room is pretty clean, so I assume Its close to opening time. Also I'm not sure if its the distortion or if that table is just really narrow. I can't figure out what the kids on the rear right are playing.

Uploaded

May 31st, 2024

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