Finding Meaning in the Shadows

Edward Crapsey. The Nether Side of New-York; or, The Vice, Crime and Poverty of the Great Metropolis. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1872.

Edward Crapsey’s descriptions of professional criminals include many of the figures featured in this exhibition, from mail order fraudsters and quack doctors to gamblers, abortionists, fences, and harbor thieves. A contemporary reviewer observed that “to the thousands living in New-York whose acquaintance with the City is confined to Broadway and the up-town streets and avenues, this work will prove an astonishing revelation.” But the author knew quite well that underworld commerce was anything but a new thing.