A friend at work showed a trailer from the movie Gangs of New York. The trailer showed famous events/people from history of the US. However, one of them confused me. What is the reference to for 1879? The picture with the year shows people getting on a boat. What is going on here? The link to the site is www.gangsofnewyork.com click on “Time” to view the trailer.
Maybe the date is off. I believe the picture for 1916 is WWI, but we didn’t declare war until 1917.
Any thoughts
Maybe it’s meant to imply the waves of mass immigration that took place during the 1880’s to the end of the 19th century? (I don’t know what this movie is about or why these photos are being shown, though.)
The book this is based off of starts in the 1800’s, and goes to the 20’s.
A lot of Irish were arriving in New York City at that time–also, the Draft Riots against the Civil War took place in 1863, which the movie also depicts.
Well, since my understanding is that this movie is about Irish immigrants in New York, and you say the picture for 1879 shows people getting on a boat, my guess is that is a reference to a famine in Ireland. While not as bad as the famous Potato Famine of the 1840s, 1879 was the year of the biggest famine in Ireland of the second half of the 19th century. As such, it would have been a time when many people emmigrated from the country. From this site
I don’t think they were careful with the dates and photos. The Wright brothers first flew in '03, not '09. If I had to guess I’d say the photo is of soldiers departing for war in Cuba in '98. Can’t see the uniforms well but look correct and the bedrolls are a giveaway it’s not immagrants boarding for America.