Closing Time

Today we’re serving up some NYC nostalgia with our newest Vintage Edition: Closing Time. Created in the late 1930s by American artist and printmaker Ann Nooney, Closing Time features a classic afterhours city street scene as an apron-clad shop owner calls it a night.

Nooney produced Closing Time as part of her work with the Federal Arts Project. The FAP was a subdivision of The Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was established in 1935 as a government program designed to employ millions of job-seekers for public works projects with the goal of alleviating the economic effects of the Great Depression. At its height, the Graphic Arts Division of the WPA employed almost 800 artists across 36 American cities.

Similar to the photographs produced for the WPA’s Farm Security Administration (FSA), the subjects of the FAP’s illustrations and lithographs often centered on the changing landscape of America’s cities. At the time, the diner industry was booming, with on-the-go urbanites seeking low-cost meals for speedy lunch hours and late-night munchies. From futuristic convenience in Berenice Abbott’s Automat to a quick stop for hot goss in Julia Rogers’s Three Graces, 1930s food service was a modern marvel. But even this nocturnal city needs a nap sometimes. Take a break and enjoy a city slicker’s reprieve at Closing Time.