Chicago, 1931. 

Free coffee, doughnuts, and soup for the unemployed.  This soup kitchen was said to have been opened by Al Capone.

A drawing of one of Mrs. Lamadrid's One Cent Coffee Stands.  This sketch, from Jacob Riis' now famous 1890 book How The Other Half Lives, was probably done from a photograph.

Facsimile of the page in Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine from 1887, that describes the origin of "St. Andrew's One Cent Coffee Stands." A forerunner of today's espresso carts, they served a decidedly different clientele.

Coffee on the bowery, New York, 1908.

There were no government supplied unemployment benefits at that time.

This establishment is described as the New York Municipal Lodging House.  Date unknown, probably depression era.  Why are there both metal and ceramic cups?