On the streets of New York with a pushcart, this fellow tries to sell nuts and raisins to the passers-by. Ten cents, just ten cents is all he asks. He has a cigar in his mouth, but it doesn’t look like it’s lit — they last longer that way. The edge of the pushcart tray is carefully decorated with what looks suspiciously like chili peppers — suggesting this may not be the original use for this cart, perhaps not the original owner. The sixty years that separate us from this scene leave us only guesses as to how he came to this.

The photograph was taken for the New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper in 1947 by staff photographer Fred Palumbo. Fred Palumbo was born about 1905 in France of Italian parents. He came to the U.S.A. with his parents and siblings in 1910. An elder brother, born about 1895 was born in Italy, and a sister born about 1904 was born in Paraguay. Clearly, the 1910 arrival in New York was the family’s second attempt to settle in the New World. The 1930 census shows Fred was a photographer, but doesn’t list is place of employment. By the late 1930s through the 1950s he was working for the newspaper cited for this image.