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.
Images of segregation sit among those showing all manner of state visits, proclamation presentations, and keys to the city being awarded.
1954: Commissioner Renah F. Camalier addresses a bus of Black children and a bus of white children at the send-off ceremony for an annual AAA School Safety Patrol Officers Training Camp. (D.C. Office of Public Records)
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.
The 1000 Block of 3rd Street SE in 1955 (D.C. Office of Public Records) and 1001 3rd Street SE in 2025 (Google Maps).
Viewers can search the full collection by subject using the “Filter Results” options, or just scroll through time chronologically. Let us know what you find!
1956: The opening of the National Cherry Blossom Festival at the end of Kutz Bridge. (D.C. Office of Public Records)
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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