Way Back Machine | Citizen Spies, 1901 Edition By JACK B. DONOVAN
New York UndercoverPhotographic views of New York City, Milstein Division, New York Public Library. Snooping in the shadows: the cover image from the book “New York Undercover,” about citizen sleuths of yesteryear.
Asking you to say something if you happen to see something is a modest request. But what might induce you to adopt a disguise and spy on your fellow citizens? How about a generous proliferation of vice, combined with a healthy dose of corrupt law enforcement, and some strong encouragement (including a small stipend) from morally minded civic leaders?
Out of just such fertile soil, a wide-ranging program of amateur surveillance flourished in early 20th-century New York City. Ordinary folks — settlement house workers, off-duty state Excise Department employees, dry-goods jobbers — moonlighted as denizens of the demimonde, going undercover to document a profusion of turpitude in the bustling city.
In 1900, a