Google of Jackson Building New York City led to a link to the New York City Police Band. The sousaphone, according to Wikipedia, was invented in 1893 and developed a 90 degree forward pitch in the "early 1900's"

Another google: William H Jackson was an iron producer and builder, including many early tall steel buildings. He died in 1908. He moved his HQ several times, but I'm guessing Union Square (based on an advertisement from his company at the time).

So my guess is Union Square, 1905.

1) Yeah, Union Square looks right. But when. Dag, if you are right with 1905 that's impressive!

Let's see, William H. Jackson comes up with multiple locations, though the first one is 18 E 17th St, New York, NY 10003, which is near to Union Square.

Marching brass band without a Sousaphone, which was developed in the 1890s. Looks like some of the instruments are Euphoniums (Euphonia?).
No cars visible, just some horse dung (though even today the NY police have a mounted division). I'm guessing post Civil War until the 1890s. Probably 1880s. There's also a distinct lack of wires. Now Pearl St. got electricity in 1882, and this is a ways away from there. But still, no phone lines either. So I'm going 1880s.

I don't think it could be that early. I'm pretty sure you couldn't get such a quick exposure (the band is marching and not blurred at all) with collodion plates. It almost has to be gelatin silver.

Good point about the absence of wires (also no trolleys or signs thereof). Hmmm. I don't have a lot of time today but I'll see if I can narrow down the year a little more later.

Of course the NY city police band's history page is empty.

I'm going later, say 1914, on the grounds that J M Chanut seems to have been active then -- they have patents for kid gloves in that year. Also, from pix I could find it kind of looks like the NYPD wore helmets rather than caps for parades around 1900, but here is a similar uniform worn by the chief in 1914. And as I said, the photograph looks too good to be earlier -- and I just noticed that there's a little bit of peeling midway down next to the right edge of the photo, so that's also a sign it isn't a collodion plate. Although I guess it could be a later silver print made from a plate, so maybe that's not good evidence.

It does worry me that there are no trolley tracks, though. I would have thought Union Sq would have been criss-crossed with them in the 'teens.

Not at all confident about this.

Two of these in two days! My brain will heat up and melt.
The NYPD Band, according the website home page was established 1901, so the photo cannot be any older than that.
The J.M. Chanut & Co. (Located just north on B'way) was incorporated in 1910 (according to the Notion and Fancy goods catalog notation on-line). The business was older, but would not have the "& Co" name before that year.
The northern perimeter of Union Square (17th st.) did not have trolleys. They were on Broadway, 4th Ave., and 14th St.
I'm guessing that this parade was a celebration of the first Armistice Day; November 11, 1918. Just a guess...

Ah, very interesting, about the trolleys.

I don't think that's safe reasoning about "& Co", though. Especially then, businesses used "& Co" as an abbreviation, or because the other partners had changed, whether they were incorporated or not. For instance, "Tiffany, Young and Ellis" became "Tiffany & Co" in 1858, but did not incorporate until 1868.

It also seems like there would be a street lamp or two visible if the pic was that late. Same goes for my guess (1914), for that matter. I think it's possible to get a shot that wide with no street lamps, even in a busy part of town, in the early twentieth century, but obviously the longer after 1900 you get, the less likely it is.

If only we could hear what they're playing! (Or read the music, but it's too blurry.)

There is a street lamp on the far corner, right above the clarinetist's head. It looks to me like a gas light though.

The uniforms showed up on a 1915 picture I found on ebay. But they could have had them for a while.

Wish there was a way to compare that corner from one picture to another year-by-year. Or the uniforms. What has been discussed though is certainly worthy of a lot of respect. I always learn something new when I post these games :)

And since this happens to be on the radio as I write...

What we need is a "in the year 19XX, a watch cost ____" list.

The building in the background between JM Chanut & Co and Buyler's(?) has a "we must vacate - entire stock of watches, jewelry, novelties must be sold at once" sign that lists the price as $2.50. The business's name is on the sign, but I cannot make it out.

I don't know if by "watch" they mean a wrist watch, which according to this site (http://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/trenchwatches.php) was not really a popular menswear item until the late 1920s, or a pocket watch, which were "the" fashionable watch for men before that.

Unfortunately, the consumer price index does not seem to have tracked the price of a watch for 1914 or any other year mentioned.

According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from April 2, 1913 (http://www.newspapers.com/image/54217200/), this ad says that Frederick Loeser & Co (the leading retail establishment of Brooklyn) had purchased the "whole stock of John N Hines & Co of 23 East 17th Street, Manhattan" and that the rugs were going fast. Usually a store doesn't sell its entire stock unless they are going out of business, so since Hines Rugs (clearly identified as "No. 23") has two signs in the background, that would place this before 1913.

The building mid-left in the background is 857 Broadway. You can see "B'Way 17th St" on top of the building next to the DeYoung's sign on the top of the building. Joseph de Young moved his photography studio into that location in 1902, so it has to be after that. Did some checking on Nearco Castilli & Bros. They were an importer who got into the Persian rug game in 1909. So I'm thinking after 1909, but can't be positive there. The Wm H Jackson & Co sign is no help. They were in Union Square as early as 1877 and are still there today. Wallach, Hoexter & Co. went bankrupt in 1927. So that doesn't help. Looked up some of the other companies showing as well, but nada.

So I'd not be able to offer anything but a guess at this point.

Huh...857 Broadway has their own website. And they feature a picture of the building from 1898 that shows most of the businesses in the above picture. So either the site where I read DeYoungs moved to that location in 1902 is incorrect or the 857 Broadway site is wrong. This doesn't help. Ugh...

Wow, [9] [11] [12] all excellent detective work!
I scanned for a street light, but missed that one.

I thought of looking up prices, but I don't think inflation would have been high enough to get any definite answers. The $2.50 watches could be deeply discounted, maybe even a loss-leader, etc.

It's too bad we aren't going to get a definitive answer from Will... but actually it's kind of fun this way, too.

Good work, everyone; nice detective work as was mentioned. I certainly don't have a definitive answer, but I invite anyone who comes across this thread to post a comment or send me an email if they do have a definitive answer; you never know, it has happened in past games. Thanks for playing everyone; brownies on the house for everyone!