So, This Is What Prospect Park South Used To Look Like

Have you ever seen this before? Turn of the (20th) century photographer George R. Lawrence captured this view of Prospect Park South with his Captive Airship camera, a precursor to modern-day drones, in 1907.

The innovation was made by Lawrence, a seasoned aerial photographer, after the basket of a hot air balloon in which he was riding separated from the rest of the vessel in 1901. Incredibly, power lines 200 feet down caught him–at which point, logically, Lawrence decided to make a camera that could shoot from the sky without him having to ride in a flimsy death machine again.

Designed with Silas J. Conyne‘s kite contraption (used for advertising banners) in mind, Lawrence’s Captive Airship weighed 50 pounds and required 17 kites to keep it in flight up to 2,000 feet high. This was tiny compared to his 1900 Mammoth Camera, which took eight-foot-wide photographs, required 15 operators, and depending on the account, weighed either 900 or 1,400 pounds.

While most of Lawrence’s photographs show Chicago, where he was based, we’re lucky enough to have this view of PPS. If you’re feeling discombobulated, Beverley is on the left, and Marlborough is just above the subway tracks. Anyone see his or her house?

Top photo via Library of Congress/George R. Lawrence, kites via Film’s Not Dead