A Salvation Army collections bucket at Herald Square, around 1903. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.
The view in 2014:
I don’t know if the Salvation Army still puts kettles in Herald Square during the Christmas season, but the sight of Salvation Army volunteers ringing a bell next to a kettle hung from a tripod stand is certainly recognizable to modern eyes. The same can’t necessarily be said for Herald Square, though, which looks significantly different from 110 years ago. Probably the most obvious change is the lack of the Sixth Avenue El, which was taken down in 1939 and replaced with the IRT Sixth Avenue subway line.