july101913

The woman on the left is perhaps Mrs. William Halsted Vander Poel, the former Gretchen Billings, daughter of CKG Billings (chairman of Union Carbide). CKG Billings and Frederick Johnson (apparently the husbands of the other two women) together bought some English thoroughbred horses to raise for raising in 1915.

C. K. G. Billings and Fred Johnson were partners in the ownership of race horses, including "Omar Khayyam," winner of the 1917 Kentucky Derby. This photo appears to have been taken at the stepped observation boxes of the Piping Rock Country Club, in Locust Valley, Long Island, on July 10, 1913. Here is the same scene, same day, shifted to the right:

Another Bain/LOC photo of the same venue was posted to Flickr on April 27, 2011:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shaffer_Phipps

We've seen that viewing stand before. Horse trials I think. I'll locate it somewhere hereabouts. Here's one example of the stand: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2422675733/in/p... And here it is at the Long Branch Horse Show in New Jersey: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3681839693/

Looks to be Washington Square Arch in Greenwich Village in background at right

It looks like 7/10/13 is written backwards on the right border.

Infrogmation and falconn67: Thanks for the comments about the date and location of this photo. It does look like Washington Square Arch, New York City. We will add the information to the description and update the database.

The vehicle on the right was made by De Dion-Bouton of France.

the fifth avenue bus company began assigning route numbers to buses instead of descriptions in 1916. so if this was 1916, the bus to the left would be called the #5, and the bus to the right would be the #2 today's buses use similar route numbers, the M5, and the M2.