Ca. 163 original gelatin silver photographs and real photo postcards (mostly mounted on loose cardboards) from ca. 17,8x22,8 cm (7 x 9 in) to ca. 6,8x4,9 cm (2 ½ x 2 in). Ca. 30 photos with English captions or dates on the mounts (either in manuscript or typewritten text); with one identification badge of a newborn ca. 3,5x7,2 cm (2 ¾ x 1 ¼ in). Several photos detached, one photo lacking a small fragment at the margin, one photo with a horizontal fold mark, and one photo with small fragments at the lower right corner attached by scotch tape, but otherwise a very good collection of strong photos.

Historically interesting archive of lively, vernacular photographs and real photo postcards related to the New York–based Ukrainian and Belarusian Jewish families of Yurowsky and Rothstein.

From 1881 to 1917, the United States experienced its largest wave of immigration. Following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, blamed by many on the Jews, a series of violent pogroms erupted across the Russian Empire. With official tolerance and new restrictive laws, these attacks devastated over 160 towns, leaving thousands of Jewish families impoverished. As a result, more than two million Jews emigrated to the United States, over one million settling in New York. The compilers’ family appears to have left during this period, seeking safety from widespread anti-Jewish violence.

According to the captions, the archive belonged to the family of Ukrainian and Belarusian Jews Jacob Yurowsky (ca. 1886-1962) and Lillian Rothstein (ca. 1888-1961). Jacob’s parents, Louis Yourowsky (ca. 1858-?) and Yetta Yourowsky (ca. 1860-?), emigrated to the United States in 1896, leaving their children with relatives in Ukraine. Born in Zhitomir, Jacob eventually joined his parents in America in 1905, arriving amidst the First Russian Revolution and anti-Jewish pogroms. In 1917, he married Lillian, who had emigrated from Belarus with most of her siblings. The couple first lived in Manhattan before later settling in the Bronx, where they raised their son, Morton Yourowsky (ca. 1919–2006). U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records (1938–1946) indicate that Morton graduated from Utica College and worked as a pressman and plate printer prior to his military service in the World War II.

The collection contains over 163 lively vernacular photographs and real photo postcards mostly taken and collected in New York. The earliest photographs in the archive apparently date to 1902–1903 and were produced in the pioneer Minsk studios of Osip Bernstein and L. Rosowski. These portraits likely capture Lillian’s sisters, Sonia and Minnie, prior to the family's emigration from Belarus.

Importantly, the archive includes at least fifty excellent cabinet photographs of the Yourowsky family and their relatives, taken at early, lesser-known New York studios. Most of the photographs identify the specific photographer or studio, frequently providing the studio address printed directly on the mount. Among these are excellent images from People’s Photo Gallery at 45 Canal Street; Spachner & Berger on 12th Avenue in the Lower East Side, M. Robbins at 49 Canal Street; H. R. Trachtenberg at 62 Avenue C; and Isidor Yog at 45 Canal Street - the latter of whom was a noted Jewish anarchist associated with the Yiddish theatre community. The collection further contains work from Wolfson’s Art Gallery at 399 Grand Street and the Farb Photo Studio at 1535 Madison Avenue.

The rest of the photographs were taken outdoors and show the daily life of the Ukrainian and Belarusian Jewish diaspora in 1920s-1930s New York. The images mostly portray Yurowsky family members and their Jewish relatives posing at the beach, on balconies, in natural settings and city streets, on horseback, at Coney Island, in their yard, in Central Park, at a Jewish cemetery in New York, and in Burbank, California.

The collection also contains at least three real photo postcards with Russian and Ukrainian inscriptions on the verso, sent from immediate relatives in Ukraine to Lillian, and an infant identification band from Morton’s birth in 1919.

Overall, historically interesting archive of over 165 original gelatin silver photographs and real photo postcards related to the family of New York–based Ukrainian and Belarusian Jews who fled the anti-Jewish pogroms of the Russian Empire.