THEOLINE
Pier 11, East River, between Old Slip and Wall Street
APRIL 19, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 109

Theoline, Variant Image 1

Two weeks after Manhattan I, Abbott returned to Pier 11 and witnessed the unloading of a shipment of potatoes from the schooner Theoline. Built in 1917 in Maine, Theoline docked in Boston and made trips to New York three or four times a year. The large crowd gathered on the pier indicates the rarity of this once-common event; by the 1930s, most cargo arrived at the Hudson River waterfront, having been shipped by rail to New Jersey and transported by barge across the Hudson.

Theoline, variant image 2

This composition is one of Abbott's most complex. The top half presents a dense, confusing surface pattern, with the ship's masts, rigging, and sails overlaying the geometric shapes of the skyline. In the lower half, the clear alignment of masts, rigging, and sails resolves the spatial confusion. Abbott made several exposures before settling on this version of the subject. Standing on the pier, she photographed Theoline's prow against the skyline (variant 1). From the ship's deck, she tried various lenses, including a long lens that collapsed the space between ship and skyscrapers and truncated their towers (variant 2). The final version, made with a wide-angle lens, shows the full height of the Farmers Trust Building (left), 60 Wall Tower, and 120 Wall Street (right). A sail brought up from the hold while Abbott was working fills the right edge.

In 1938, Pier 11 was demolished to accommodate an expanded skyport, and in 1942 Theoline was destroyed on reefs in the West Indies. She was the last schooner in New York harbor.

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