Hot Corn Seller

William P. Chappel

1870s · Oil on slate paper · The American Wing

On summer afternoons and evenings, the cries of the iconic hot-corn girls rang through the streets: "Hot corn, hot corn! Here’s your lily-white corn! All you that’s got money, poor me that’s got none, come buy my lily-white corn and let me go home." This woman and her customer are standing in what would have been the busy intersection of Chatham, Doyers, Bowery, and Catherine Streets, in present-day Chinatown. One of the stage coaches that transported riders to and from Westchester, New York, stopped near here. Chappel pictures it approaching the local watch house at far right, where lawbreakers could be temporarily detained.

Artist

William P. Chappel

Date

1870s

Medium

Oil on slate paper

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

The Edward W. C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints, Maps, and Pictures, Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, 1954