jack

Posted by ephemeralnewyork

https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/what-a-remarkable-candid-photo-of-a-soap-fat-man-in-prospect-park-says-about-brooklyn-in-1878/

http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/?p=51961

His name is lost to history, his face is obscured by his raised arm, and the unpleasant work he did has long been made obsolete by modern technology.

But this candid image of an aproned man carrying a bucket of soap fat on his back tells us something about Brooklyn industry. And it also speaks to the talents of the the inventive photographer who captured this image and thousands of others of Brooklyn in the Gilded Age.

First, the soap fat man. Before the late 1800s, most people made soap at home using cooking fat and grease, according to the Brooklyn Public Library in a Brooklynology post from 2021.

But as Brooklyn manufacturing boomed after the Civil War, soap-making factories sprang up along the East River. They hired “soap fat men,” typically immigrants, who “collected fat waste from local residents, hotels, and butchers across the borough and beyond,” states the post.

It’s hard to know exactly what moved George Bradford Brainerd to turn his camera toward this soap fat man.

Brainerd (at right) was a civil engineer with the Brooklyn Water Department as well as an amateur photographer who devised new methods to make photography portable and develop images. A new book, Candid New York: The Pioneering Photography of George Bradford Brainerd, adds helpful context about his inspiration.

“With his love of street folk, Brainerd thought he would make a record of a neighborhood soap fat collector, a Chinese American, who was easily spotted with his ragged, dirty clothes, and trademark tin pail cinched to his back,” writes author Erik Hesselberg.

“Although taken on the fly without a steadying tripod, Brainerd captures the almost balletic grace with which the worker glides down some steps in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, all the while balancing a pail of greasy waste on his back.”

“Developing the image, he would later say, represented ‘one of the happiest moments in his life,’ as he finally caught his subject ‘walking with his foot off the ground.'” The soap fat man’s booted foot is “supple like a dancer’s slipper,” says Hesselberg.

Brainerd’s early street photography focused on objects and landscapes—old houses, park features, Coney Island, the infrastructure of a major city in the late 19th century.

But his interest in people led him to turn his eye toward apple vendors, rag pickers, newsboys, dock workers, laundresses, beggars, and other examples of humanity in Brooklyn from the late 1860s to 1887, when he died at 41.

Interesed in learning more about Brainerd and seeing some of his incredible photos? Join Ephemeral New York and author Erik Hesselberg at a free event where we’ll delve into Brainerd’s work and how it reflects Gilded Age Brooklyn. This free event is in partnership with the Center for Brooklyn History and takes place Thursday, December 4 at 6:30 p.m. Open this link for more info!

[Top photo: George Bradford Brainerd Photograph Collection, Brooklyn Public Library/Center for Brooklyn History]

https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/what-a-remarkable-candid-photo-of-a-soap-fat-man-in-prospect-park-says-about-brooklyn-in-1878/

http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/?p=51961