George Bradford Brainerd photograph collection; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Rag-and-bone men, also called ragpickers or rag dealers, were poor laborers who gathered business and household scraps and sold them for recycling and reuse. They gathered rags, glass, bones, metal, and other scrap and waste products from the streets a resold them in bulk to merchants. This work exists today in New York and around the world, under different names.
Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal of Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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