corruption

"The original headquarters building for the Society, the first Tammany Hall, was built in 1830 in Manhattan at 141 East 14th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues, but the building was not primarily the clubhouse of a political organization: Tammany Hall merged politics and entertainment, already stylistically similar, in its new headquarters ... The Tammany Society kept only one room for itself, renting the rest to entertainment impresarios: Don Bryant's Minstrels,a German theater company, classical concerts and opera. The basement – in the French mode – offered the Café Ausant, where one could see tableux vivant, gymnastic exhibitions, pantomimes, and Punch and Judy shows. There was also a bar, a bazaar, a Ladies' Cafe, and an oyster saloon. All this – with the exception of Bryant's – was open from seven till midnight for a combination price of fifty cents.[47] The building had an auditorium of sufficient size to hold public meetings, and a smaller one that became Tony Pastor's Music Hall, where vaudeville had its beginnings.[48] In 1927 the building on 14th Street was sold, to make way for the new tower being added to the Consolidated Edison Company Building." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall

artolog: Thank you for your information about the first Tammany Hall headquarters building which is depicted in this image. We will add some of the details to the description when we update.

It looks like he was a witness in a high profile investigation of police graft in NYC. Since he was ill, it looks like these are photos of arrangements to take his testimony at his home. Here are some articles and another LOC photo: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This other LOC photo also mentions "Captain Walsh" www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2765471328/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- this article talks about taking Walsh's testimony at home, because he was ill: WHITMAN DEMANDS WALSH'S TESTIMONY; Wants a Sub-Committee to Visit Sick Police Captain at Once and Question Him Fully. December 26, 1912, Thursday Page 5, 1714 words Unless Police Capt. Thomas W. Walsh, who is ill of heart trouble, recovers sufficiently to appear before the Curran Investigating Committee within the next few days a sub-committee will probably be named to examine him at his home, 1958 Madison Avenue. Capt. Walsh was in command of the East 126th Street Station for five years and a half. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B07E6DC163FE633A... ------------------------------------------------------------------- and this 1913 article mentions Captain Walsh also: WALSH LAYS BARE SIPP CONPIRACY; Four ex-Inspectors Hear Him as a Witness Tell How They Raised Bribe Funds. May 1, 1913, Thursday Page 1, 3338 words Ex-Police Capt. Thomas W. Walsh, whose graft confession forms the basis of the prosecution's case, was on the witness stand all day yesterday in the trial before Justice Seabury in the Criminal Branch of the Supreme Court of former Inspectors of Police Sweeney, Hussey, Murtha and Thompson for conspiracy.... query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9803E1DA1F3AE633A... ------------------------------------------------------------ looks like they got a guilty verdict in May, 1913: Convicted of Graft Conspiracy Without a Formal Ballot.; WHITMAN'S GREAT HOUR May 7, 1913, Wednesday Page 1, 7172 words Ex-Police Inspectors Dennis Sweeney, John J. Murtha, James F. Thompson, and James E. Hussey, jointly indicted for conspiracy to prevent George A. Sipp, the former Harlem hotel proprietor, and his son Howard from testifying against the police graft system, were found guilty last night by the jury which had been hearing the evidence before Justice Seabury, in the Criminal Branch of the Supreme Court. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9505EFD8173FE633A...

Hussey, one of the convicted inspectors:

Big Tim Sullivan - political hard man who met an ignominious end.

Larry Mulligan was Big Tim's half brother. Can't figure out who Hicks is. Ignominious end, yes, but 25,000 turned out for his funeral. That's after his body went unrecognized for two weeks and he nearly ended up in potter's field. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Sullivan

Photo is dated 7-17-1913.

Nice work Wystan. Almost missed it inverted on the right edge.

Mona, I have trouble reading the dates, but once someone like Wystan has found a date on the plate negative, then we can do a search of the New York Times to find out more. If we go to the advanced search funtion of the NYT archive, and knowing that Tim Sullivan is the most well known person in this group, let's search of "Tim Sullivan" from July 1, 1913 to July 31, 1913: query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=... Then scan the headlines and dates together, and we see a headline "Big Tim Sullivan Returns Imroved; Presence of Politician on Imperator a Secret Until Ship Reaches ..." and dated July 17, 1913. Usually, we look for an article dated the day after the date on the negative, but there is no article for July 18, 1913 in this search. So let's try the one on July 17, 1913: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9904E5DD163DE633A... and here: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9904E... Neither of these articels exactly correlates with the date on the plate identified by Wystan, but we get a good idea of the fact that a sick Big Tim is back in town.