Siskind, Aaron. Harlem: The 30s. Photographs by Aaron Siskind. A Book of Postcards.

Pomegranate Books in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Insititution, 1992. 30 postcards of African Americans in Harlem by Siskind, copyrighted 1940. Issued in connection with a traveling exhibition, the images are in the permanent collection of the museum. [In the late 1930s, Siskind was the leader of the Harlem Document, a project of the Photo League.] Like new with very minor edge wear. Summary:

Harlem: The 30s. Photographs by Aaron Siskind. A Book of Postcards is a collectible postcard book published in 1992 by Pomegranate Books. Produced in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum), this publication was issued in connection with a major traveling exhibition celebrating Siskind's early work.

The collection centers on the following key aspects:

• The publication contains 30 individual, detachable postcards featuring gelatin silver prints taken by Siskind between 1932 and 1940. These images stem from his time leading the Photo League’s "Harlem Document" and "Most Crowded Block" feature essays, which sought to highlight social issues during the Great Depression.

• Moving away from the abstract style that later defined his career, these photographs showcase Siskind's early mastery of humanistic social documentary. The images capture a vibrant yet careworn portrait of African American life in Harlem, featuring street scenes, children at play, church services, nightclub performers, and local workers like the neighborhood "watermelon man."

• The collection serves as an intimate historical record of Harlem in the 1930s—capturing the community during a period when the height of the Harlem Renaissance was declining and economic hardships were taking hold.

As a physical object, the book functions both as a portable portfolio of Siskind’s permanent museum collection and as a memento of a transformative era in American documentary photography.