REVIEWS The reader will have a much better understanding of these storms and how they can be predicted and how one can be protected from their force. As a survivo r of both the 1938 and 1992 hurricanes, I do greatly appreciate the lessons learned from 1938 and the great improve ments m ade in o ur reporting and warning sys tem. D AVID E. P ERKINS Sebring, Flo rida
Seaport: New York's Vanished U'laterfront, Photographs from the Edwin Levick Collection, text by John Rousmaniere (Smithsoni an Books, Was hington D C, 2004, 182pp, photos, ISBN 1-58834163- 1, $34.95hc) Seaport is a collection of photographs fro m the Edw in Levick collection of The Mariner's M useum with an introductory essay by Philip Lopate, which provides relevan t historical background and a criti cal
assessment of the future of this fluid metropolis. From the 136 photographs represented here, what a collection that must be! The title page itself sings out with its panoramic view of the 19 17 harbo r in all its cacophono us glory: th e battleship ixyoming steams up the East River with an escort of tugs; lighters, barges, tugs, car floats steam down river o r nudge o ut into the stream from the docks crammed along the water's edge. Traffi c is moving well across the Brooklyn Bridge, which spans the top of the photograph and disap pears am ongst the fl edgling skyscrapers. The photos that fo llow are a passionate and partisan document of New Yo rk harbo r in the first half of the 20 th century.
The photographers m osr represented here, Edwin Levick and P. L. Sperr, had commercial srudios specializing in maritime pho tography, which was much in vogue until W o rld War II. These are not "art" pieces, or postcard views of a sentimentalized ciry. They answer to a jo urnalistic need fo r clariry, a story, and hum an interest. Some are breath takingly magnificent, a particular moment in time, rendered timeless through juxtapos1t1 on of subjects, fre quently skyscrapers overlaid by th e intricate rigging of a sailing ship. The ph otographs are of a brash and co nfident wa terfront, vib rant with the urgency of commerce. Fro m ho rse-drawn carts awaiting cargoes of bananas to the Normandie
USS Wyoming cruising up the East River, circa 1917, published in Seaport. (Photo by Edwin Levick, courtesy Smithsonian Books)
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SEA HISTORY 108, AUTUMN 2004