This midsummer weekend features all the charm of a D.C July. Unique opportunities to celebrate culture and build community — worth it, no matter the humidity.
Today is D.C.’s 236th “birthday,” commemorating the date when George Washington signed the Residence Act into law in 1790 to move the U.S. capital from Philadelphia to what is now Washington, D.C. (one of several formative dates the city can claim). To celebrate, the District of Columbia Archives has added nearly 3,000 historic images to its digital collection.
The photos show a bygone D.C. – when there were still troughs for horses, parts of the city could be mistaken for the countryside, and Adams Morgan looked like a quaint village – and glimpses of the future, including the opening of the Whitehurst and 14th Street bridges.
The Whitehurst Freeway opening in 1949 and the grand opening of the 14th Street Bridge in 1950 and . (D.C. Office of Public Records).
Images of segregation sit among those showing all manner of state visits, proclamation presentations, and keys to the city being awarded.
For now, the new collection spans a narrow 12-year window from 1947-1959, comprising only 10% of the 23,000 physical negatives the District of Columbia Archives has from official government photographers. The rest stretch through the 1970s and are still being scanned, but the Archives is working to make them available, too.
The Office of Public Records and Archives is part of the Office of the Secretary of D.C. and has physical collections and research assistance available at 1300 Naylor Court NW, along with many more records stored offsite while it awaits a new building. This is its largest digital photo collection to date.
1959: An aerial view of D.C. General hospital in September and sick children from the hospital seeing a D.C. Armory Horse Show in December. (D.C. Office of Public Records)
Eric is a co-founder of The 51st focused on community listening and collaboration. He has covered local D.C. for more than a decade, including creating the Homeless Crisis Reporting Project.
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