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.