Daily AncestorBootblack
A bootblack shined shoes and boots for pay, often a boy working on a city street corner, at a railroad station or in a hotel.
Shining shoes was a common job for poor city boys in the later 1800s and early 1900s, along with selling newspapers. Some bootblacks were adults who worked a fixed stand.
Census instructions from 1910 to 1930 mention bootblacks with newsboys and peddlers as people who usually worked on their own account, which explains why a boy may be listed as working for himself.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1900 to 1940 census
Tony Russo, 12, Bootblack, Street
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Daily Ancestor. "Bootblack." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/bootblack. Last checked 2026-10-01.