Unemployed men queued outside a Chicago soup kitchen attributed to Capone (February 1931)
National Archives photograph, February 1931, of men in a line outside a Chicago storefront signed "Free Soup, Coffee and Doughnuts for the Unemployed." The catalog title attributes the soup kitchen to Al Capone; he is not in the picture.
- Date
- 1931-02
- Kind
- photograph
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-11
- NAID
- 541927
- Rights
- The National Archives catalog marks this item "Access: Unrestricted, Use: Unrestricted." Its parent series, the Photographic File of the Paris Bureau of the New York Times (series 541877, Record Group 306), cautions that only prints stamped New York Times with the Paris address are presumed to be in the public domain and that copyright restrictions may apply to all other prints and copy negatives. The stamp is not visible in the digital image. This archive relies on the item-level "Use: Unrestricted" pending a check of the physical print.
The National Archives catalog titles this photograph “Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone.” It is a negative in the New York Times Paris Bureau photo file (Record Group 306), Local ID 306-NT-165319c, and the catalog gives February 1931 as the date it was produced. The copy stored here is the catalog’s 600-pixel GIF.
The picture shows men in overcoats and hats standing in a line along the sidewalk outside a storefront. The sign over the window reads “Free Soup, Coffee and Doughnuts for the Unemployed.” Capone does not appear. The statement that he opened the kitchen is the catalog title’s, not something visible in the photograph, and this page does not add to it. The catalog does not give a street address, so none is stated here.
