jammiereynolds

This is daredevil John “Jammie” Reynolds (1888-1926).  The son of a steeplejack in West Philadelphia, PA, "Reynolds began performing at the age six in Buffalo, balancing on one foot from a flagpole 140 feet in the air." [1] [2]  Kristi Finefield of the Library of Congress put together an awesome collection of photographs and information about Jammie Reynolds in her recent blog post, Double Take: Detecting a Daredevil  (January 27, 2017). We also get to take a look over Kristi's shoulder as she researches a photo starting with just a fragment of information!

"While working on a reference question about a building on 9th Street N.W. in Washington, D.C. and browsing through older photos of that street in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, one dramatic photo made me do a double take. What on Earth is going on at the top of this building?"

According to the caption of a similar photo in The evening world., June 14, 1919, Final Edition, Image 2, this photo was taken on the twenty-fifth story of the Herald Sqare Building chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1919-06-14/ed-...

Most sources refer to him as Jack Reynolds. "All were eager to see “Daredevil Jack – the “Human Fly” – cheat death on this Saturday night in July, 1922. Jack Reynolds was 31 years old and he’d been doing this type of stunt for a long time. An acrobat and juggler, the Philadelphia daredevil was known by many names – Daredevil Johnny, the Climbing Wonder, and The Lizard, to name a few." thesarniajournal.ca/when-the-human-fly-thrilled-a-downtow... See also photos in - Evening public ledger., February 04, 1915, Sports Final, Image 1 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1915-02-04/ed-... - Evening public ledger., February 05, 1915, Sports Final, Image 16 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1915-02-05/ed-... - The Washington times., September 06, 1917, FINAL EDITION, Page 3 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1917-09-06/ed-... - The West Virginian., May 19, 1922, Image 1 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072054/1922-05-19/ed-...

See also this Shorpy photo and comments www.shorpy.com/node/5405

Copy at www.greatbigcanvas.com/view/human-fly-john-jammie-reynold... is captioned, "Human Fly' John 'Jammie' Reynolds juggles while balancing atop a roof decoration in New York City. In the distance is the New York Life Building at the Madison Square Park. Ca. 1915-1920."

See

I think the tower in the right background is probably actually the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Life_Insurance_Company... and that beside and below it at extreme right may be the Flatiron building. See www.nyc-architecture.com/GRP/GRP19-metlife2.jpg

I think you are right, and this is a view southeast from Herald Square.
A similar photo ran in the New York Tribune for June 22, 1919:
"Reynolds, the original steeple jack, pushes the perils of his pro- fession a point and performs perilous acrobatic stunts on the roof of the Herald Square Building, 22 stories high. Slipping would mean a 400-foot descent into Broadway. C. Curtis."
www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1919-06-22/ed-1/?sp=9&...
See also comments under

Thanks for the fuller identification. We'll add this to our records.

My jaw dropped. Thank-you for posting this incredible photo and the one of him with the two chairs. WOW! FAVED for sure.