Vintage Photos: 1920s NYC Sanitation Workers in Uniform

A while back we discovered this photo on Instagram from user Robin Nagle of NYU which features several street sweepers from the NYC Department of Street Cleaning. This department became the Dept. of Sanitation in 1929. Robin wrote in response to us,

“I came across an 8×10 version of it at the Department of Sanitation headquarters in lower Manhattan a few years ago, and we enlarged it to poster size for an exhibition we organized at NYU. The white uniforms were used between 1895 and sometime in the ’20s. I’ve always wondered who had to wash them…! The time book — that’s the big ledger held by the foreman in the right of the photo — is still used.”

Thanks to Robin for the awesome find! If you find a vintage photo that is quirky and worth mentioning, be sure to share it and tag us on Twitter or Instagram using #untappedcities. Your photo can be selected for our weekly Untapped Photo Pool roundup! Get in touch with the author @uptownvoice.