Times Building Under Construction, New York, New York, circa 1903. Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920

Times Building, Times Square, New York, New York, Samuel H. Gottscho, photographer, 1962. Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955

Architect Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz was born on July 27, 1853, in New York, New York. His father, Prague-born architect Leopold Eidlitz, led the American Gothic revival of the second half of the nineteenth century and founded the American Institute of Architects. Educated in Europe, the younger Eidlitz designed numerous public buildings including Chicago's Dearborn Station and the Buffalo Public Library.

In 1904, Cyrus Eidlitz collaborated with Alexander McKenzie on the New York Times Building--a steel-framed skyscraper with Beaux-Arts facade and Gothic accents created for publisher Arthur Ochs. Perhaps Eidlitz's most famous work, it filled a triangle at the base of Longacre Square, subsequently renamed Times Square. At the time of its opening, the Times Building was the second tallest in Manhattan and soon became the cornerstone of a full-fledged theater district. By the 1930s, over fifty theaters, including the Ziegfeld Theater, competed for audiences in Times Square.

Times Square, Globe Marquee, Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photographer, ca. 1941. Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955

At the urging of Ochs, Eidlitz and McKenzie connected the Times Building underground to the 42nd Street station. As early as 1904, New Yorkers were riding the subway from City Hall in lower Manhattan to 145th Street in just twenty-six minutes.

Within a decade, the newspaper outgrew the Times Building and moved on. Today, a band of electric lights mounted across the facade transmits news and announcements. The building remains a focal point of Times Square where crowds gather every December 31 to welcome the new year.

Learn more about the growth of New York City and its place in American Memory:

• Search the collection Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955 on Times Square to view additional photographs.

• The Life of a City: New York, 1898-1906 contains forty-five early films of the city. One records the view from the top of the newly-erected Times Building, while another film documents excavation of the Macy Building foundation.

• For a wide variety of features related to New York City, including the filming of the 1906 The Skyscrapers of New York, search the Today in History Archive on New York.

• Find out What Happened on 23rd Street, New York City one fine day in 1901.

Gertrude Stein, Carl Van Vechten, photographer, January 4, 1935. Creative Americans: Portraits by Van Vechten, 1932-1964

Alice B. Toklas, Carl Van Vechten, photographer, October 8, 1949. Creative Americans: Portraits by Van Vechten, 1932-1964

On July 27, 1946, American avant-garde writer and art connoisseur Gertrude Stein died in France. Longtime companion Alice B. Toklas was at her side. In their last conversation, Stein reportedly questioned Toklas about the meaning of life: "Alice, what is the answer?" When Toklas was unable to reply, Stein queried, "In that case, what was the question?"

After growing up in California, Stein attended Radcliffe College and the Johns Hopkins Medical School. From 1903 on, she lived in Paris. Among the first to recognize Picasso's genius, Stein cultivated friendships with Picasso, Henri Matisse and other experimental painters who frequently gathered for food and conversation at her home.

During the 1920s, Stein's talent for the apt turn-of-phrase and her willingness to mentor others made her Paris salon a gathering place for American expatriates Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Archibald MacLeish. Watching these young men struggle to come to terms with World War I's devastation, Stein observed to Hemingway, "You are all a lost generation."

Stein's own writing was influenced by the Cubist school of art. She developed a fragmented, abstract style intended to capture the moment. Her 1914 novel Tender Buttons exemplifies this approach but proves difficult for readers. An earlier novel, Three Lives (1909) is highly-regarded, while the best selling Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1903) tells Stein's life from Toklas's point of view.

Virgil Thomson, Carl Van Vechten, photographer, June 4, 1947. Creative Americans: Portraits by Van Vechten, 1932-1964

These photographs of Gertrude Stein and composer Virgil Thomson are featured on the score of their opera, The Mother of Us All (published 1947). Based on the life and career of Susan B. Anthony, the opera is described in its foreword as a "pageant" on the theme of winning rights for women in the United States.

Learn more about the life and times of Gertrude Stein:

• In the early 1920s, the National Woman's Party commissioned a statue of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott from sculptor Adelaide Johnson. This work, intended for the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, influenced Stein's staging of The Mother of Us All.

• Search the collection Creative Americans: Portraits by Van Vechten, 1932-1964 on Gertrude Stein to access six additional photographs of Stein. Repeat the search on other names or browse the occupational index to find portraits of favorite literary and artistic figures.

• Read Today in History features about Stein's friends Ernest Hemingway, Thornton Wilder, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Archibald MacLeish.