Great Riot at the Astor Place Opera House, New York, on Thursday Evening, May 10 Size:24x18 where ivory balls clicked beneath

where ivory balls clicked beneath green shades and a gentleman's cue tip required chalk and powder in equal measure

leading German-speaking volunteers into a war fought in a borrowed tongue

ruled and ornamented for the careful entry of names and dates — the parlor-wall arithmetic of grief

where wrought-iron fire escapes stack tenement facades like opera tiers above the awnings and hand-lettered signs

Great Riot at the Astor Place Opera House, New York, on Thursday Evening, May 10 Size:24x18 where ivory balls clicked beneathGreat Riot at the Astor Place Opera House, New York, on Thursday Evening, May 10 a documentary engraving of the 1849 Astor Place catastrophe, when a feud between Edwin Forrest's partisans and the English tragedian Macready spilled into the street and the militia answered with musketry. Class resentment dressed as a theater quarrel, and the cobblestones remembered. About the Source Bella Frye sources artifacts from the great American historical archive