This photograph of a shop window taken in 1942 speaks eloquently to what it means to have pride in both your heritage as well as in the country you’ve chosen as your home.
![New York, New York. Window of a Jewish religious shop on Broom [sic] Street. Photo by Marjory Collins, 1942. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c31126](https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/files/2013/05/8d21927a.jpg "New York, New York. Window of a Jewish religious shop on Broom [sic] Street. Photo by Marjory Collins, 1942. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c31126")
![New York, New York. Window of a Jewish religious shop on Broom [i.e. Broome] Street. Photo by Marjory Collins, 1942. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d21922](https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/files/2013/05/8d21922u2-975x1024.jpg "New York, New York. Window of a Jewish religious shop on Broom [i.e. Broome] Street. Photo by Marjory Collins, 1942. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d21922")
Even without reading the caption, a close look at the image tells the viewer we are peering into the window of a shop in the United States. The clue lies in the small banner at top left, which proclaims that the owners of this shop on the Lower East Side of Manhattan are “proud to be Americans”.
Another window (right), perhaps of the same shop, declares that “it’s great to be an American” and even offers advice on how to become a citizen of the United States.
Learn More:
- May is Jewish American Heritage Month in the United States. Explore the online exhibits and collections from the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other institutions marking the occasion.
- View the online exhibition of Words Like Sapphires: 100 Years of Hebraica at the Library of Congress, 1912–2012.
- See all of the photographs taken by Marjory Collins during her 1942 visit to the Jewish residents of the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Comments (2)
This is a window on the world,our world and an example to follow. We have lost this art form and an ability to stop and stare.It is an interesting example of how we can reflect a culture and noble tradition as well as a pride that tells the world who we belong to if only like the girl we too could dwell to study and look back from without and go forward from within
Beautiful. Thank you for this.