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Authors Matthew Gilmore and Andrew Brodie Smith dug through a wealth of treasures at the Library of Congress and in the D.C. public libraries to produce Historic Photos of Washington, D.C.. Gilmore and Smith will be at Candida's World of Books tonight to sign their weighty book.
Though certainly an attractive book for anyone with a coffee table, Historic Photos is also a gem for local history buffs, with nearly 200 photos that span from a domeless Capitol building in 1861 to soldiers at the corner of 14th and U Streets as riots destroyed the neighborhood in 1968. Gilmore and Smith divided them into four "eras," following Washington not only as it developed into the nation's capital, but as citizens flocked to it and created the neighborhoods we live in today. The photos are each accompanied by useful captions, describing not just the content of the image, but a brief history since it was taken -- it's noted next to a photo of a trolley car running to the Eastern Car House, that the house is now the Car Barn condominiums.
Historic Photos manages not to become a cliché jumble of touristy images, instead focusing on people whose stories have given the city depth. Some, of course, are of political figures: there are images of Warren G. Harding strolling down the street with aides. and Lincoln's assassins hanging from their nooses. Others remind us that more than politics happens around here: Babe Ruth speaking to fans at Griffith Stadium, or young boys in "dime messenger" outfits -- an image that actually helped end this type of child labor.
As the preface aptly notes, their hope in publishing the book is that "longtime residents will learn something new and that new residents will gain a perspective on where Washington has been, so that each can contribute to its future." At the very least, it's fun to recognize the streets you walk down everyday, as they were 100 years ago.
Matthew Gilmore and Andrew Brodie Smith will be at Candida's World of Books at 1541 14th Street NW tonight at 6:30 p.m.
Image of a young Western Union telegram messenger in front of the Washington Post building (top) taken around 1910 by photographer Lewis Hine.
Image of a group from the National Council for Reduction of Armaments on 17th Street (bottom) in the early 1920s from the Library of Congress
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The Shorpy website has lots of great old photos of DC from the past 100+ years, including some great ones of the Waffle Shop which is about to become history. Washington DC: Then and Now has great before/after shots from around town. But probably the best book of DC photos is Capital Losses, documenting great old buildings that no longer exist.
These guys need to talk to their publicist. I got blog spam about this book a few weeks back, and I imagine I'm not the only one.
I wonder if bicycle messengers back then were as big of asshats as they are now....
Little known fact: DC bike messengers in the 1860s used to spend their downtime around McPherson Square passing around a bottle of ether and a rag. By the 1930, jazz musicians introduced messengers to "mary janes" and "reefers" which remain in use to this day.
I wonder how long it will take for someone to come on here to lecture us about how bike messengers are better at riding bikes than any of us will ever be.
I second the Shorpy recommendation - the pictures posted there delight me daily. Aside from Washington sites, they're an amazing historical record of social trends, illuminating parts of American society that get few mentions elsewhere. In this case, the pictures really are worth a thousand words.
Yep. Capital Losses is a great one.
I think that's where I saw the truly magnificent building that was torn down to make room for the hideous and already useless Hine Jr High on Capitol Hill.
Makes you wonder what they were smoking when they made that decision....