TRAVELING TIN SHOP
MAY 22, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 92

Once the lifeblood of New York's poorer neighborhoods, vendors like this traveling pots-and-pans salesman were a disappearing breed when Abbott took this photograph in 1936. Horse-drawn carts were giving way to trucks, peddling was strictly licensed, and by the late 1930s, peddlers were restricted to covered markets built by the city.

The location of Abbott's photograph is not specified, but the neighborhood resembles Talman and Jay Streets, which she photographed the same day.

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