All the colorful characters celebrating July Fourth on Lower Broadway in 1834

New York City has always loved a party, and that’s never more true than on Independence Day. Since the early 19th century, Gotham has held official July Fourth celebrations filled with artillery firings, parades, boat races, and massive fireworks displays.

But in the pockets of every neighborhood, more informal Fourth of July festivities take place, as the richly detailed illustration above reveals.

This is July 4, 1834, looking south at Broadway and Cortlandt Street. Modest wood and brick buildings are festooned with American flags (with only 24 stars at this point). Military men head north in a parade. Small kids in straw hats and bonnets mix with elegant adults in stovepipe hats and fashionable gowns.

You can practically smell the smoke coming out of those rifles; firing guns into the air was a time-honored way to show patriotism. The scent of hot corn hawked by the vendor in the white shirt, plus the usual garbage stench of a crowded residential street in the summertime, would have given this corner quite an aroma.

Parasols and cloth awnings on storefronts protect from the sun. A man in a frock coat holds his hands to his ears, probably in response to the firecrackers going off in the foreground on the left.

Imagine the sights and sounds of this hopping corner 190 years ago! New York has changed in many ways since the antebellum era, but July Fourth still brings to the streets a similar mix of fun-seeking festive characters.

[Illustration: Alamy]