This Week's Best Old Photos.

December 31, 2022.

1. Central Park, c. 1895.

The 840 acre tract now covered by Central Park was the home of small farms, swamps and settlements when construction began in 1858. Its design, by famed landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, replaced those features with informal woodlands, winding footpaths and natural-looking landscapes. The Park’s roadways were sunken, to stay out of the sight of Park visitors, and half a million trees and shrubs were planted. While the Park has suffered in the past from poor maintenance, it is now managed by the Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit organization operating under contract with New York City, and receives 42 million visitors each year.

2. TR’s Rough Riders come home to post-war quarantine, 1898.

From August through October 1898, Col. Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were quarantined at Camp Wikoff, in Montauk, New York, along with twenty thousand other troops who had fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Many were sick with tropical diseases. At Camp Wikoff, the men received treatment for battle wounds as well as yellow fever, malaria and typhoid. [First photo: Roosevelt speaks with an officer. Second photo: Roosevelt has a meal in the mess tent. The others show his troops awaiting discharge.]

3. Ulysses S. Grant’s funeral, New York City, August 8, 1885.

Grant died of throat cancer on July 23, 1885, at the age of 63. His funeral procession through Manhattan to his burial site in Morningside Heights, on the Upper West Side, was 7 miles long. 1.5 million people crowded the sidewalks to observe its passing. Grant's casket was drawn by 24 black stallions. Pallbearers included Union Gens. William T. Sherman and Philip Sheridan, and Confederate Gens. Simon Buckner and Joseph Johnston. Tens of thousands of Union veterans marched in the procession. Pres. Cleveland and former presidents Hayes and Arthur rode in carriages. Grant’s body was placed in a temporary tomb. His permanent resting place, constructed with funds from 90,000 donors, was completed 12 years later. [photos: Grant's casket lies in state in New York City Hall; the funeral procession; the interment; Grant's last photo, taken 4 days before his death.]

4. Jackie Cooper

Jackie Cooper, age nine, shown left with costar Robert Coogan in the 1931 film Skippy, received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for this performance, becoming the first child to do so. At t…