Mon 1 Oct 2007
As a child I recall a book that always made me smile. Curious George never failed to make me laugh. The unbridled energy that drove George to peek where he was not supposed to look and touch things he was not to touch always fascinated me. He dared to do the things we were told not to and he always seemed to land on his feet when the inevitable happened.
It seems that the curious nature, which made me smile so much as a child, still entertains me. Standing in the checkout stand at the grocery store this week it struck me how curiosity drives most every facet of the media today. The desire to peek into private lives and homes seems to fuel endless pages of glossy magazines.
In looking through the library this week I found a book that peeks into the homes and lifestyles in the Big Apple. Joseph Byron’s Photographs of New York Interiors at the turn of the Century with text by Clay Lancaster offers us a glimpse that is at once intriguing and surprising.
From rooms that illustrate the height of Victorian opulence to the most humble family quarters, this beautiful book is a fascinating look into a distant time. What is most surprising is the familiar distance between the highs and lows of the “city that never sleeps” and how little things have changed over 100 years later.
