Photos of yesterday, featuring regular people and regular places.
White House Police Captain John McCubbin
Meet John McCubbin, White House police officer in 1922, recently promoted to head the force. Yes, he looks a little stiff. He was born in Virginia to a Scottish father and English mother. His wife, Hattie,...
Colony of Palatial Homes Around Dupont Circle
This is an excellent page from the Washington Times, published on December 21st, 1902. We wanted to share the entire page with you, so make sure to click on the image for a detailed version of...
Elephants on Parade
Clearly, this is not something you will see today … or, is it?
Old House on the Hill, Mass Ave. NE
What an incredible photograph. Click on it to examine it in detail, especially the man on the right. This is one of those haunting photos where you almost feel like the subject is looking back at...
Georgetown Hoya Baseball Five
What a great baseball moment, frozen in time. The photo shows five Georgetown baseball players in 1928.
Ice Skating in D.C. (1919)
What an eery photo from 1919.
Hungry Children at a Street Market (1937)
This photo captures such a sad face on the child’s face.
Great Colorized Photo of Girl Tennis Player (1921)
You have to love these amazing colorized photos from Shorpy (B&W one here). This is a photo of Marion Leech, the daughter of Abner Y. Leech and a student at Friends school (i.e., currently Sidwell Friends...
Girls in Bathing Suits With Ukuleles
This is both amazing and bizarre. Teenage girls with ukuleles, frozen in time. Random enough for you?
Key Bridge Under Construction
Key Bridge was being built between Georgetown and Rosslyn. Construction started in 1917 and completed in 1923. Below is a shot from Georgetown looking towards the Washington Monument, which you can see in the distance.
Flag Day at the Post Office Pavilion in 1915
This is a beautiful photo of Donald Trump’s newest property. I hope he doesn’t f*ck it up and make it ridiculously ostentatious.
Franklin Roosevelt: No Marrying Foreign Aliens
For this last post, let us turn to the December 2, 1936 copy of the Washington Post. In this article, we observe a great tongue-in-cheek opening line (a nod to various failed multilateral trade initiatives, notably...
Cute Overload: One Soda, Two Kids, Two Straws
This is a photo fit for Cute Overload (if you’re into that stuff). This is the precursor to that scene in Lady and the Tramp. The two are attending the White House Easter Egg Roll in...
Incredibly Detailed 1924 Photo of the U.S. Patent Office’s Interior
Take a look at this great afternoon photo. The detail is amazing when you click to zoom in on it. This is the old U.S. Patent Office in 1924, the building that currently serves as the...
![1943. On maneuvers in wartime Washington. "A soldier and a woman in a park, with the Old [Russell] Senate Office Building behind them." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency, photographer unknown. Office of War Information.](https://ghostsofdc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2012/09/1a35462u_0-420x334.jpg)
Man Ogles Woman Near Russell Building (1943)
We’re sharing a ton of great old photos this week and this is a great moment, frozen in time from 1943. It’s a shot of a soldier, sitting near a woman posing for a photograph. If...
Stunning Photo: Elite Laundry (Currently Brixton)
To the best of our knowledge, this is 901 U St. NW, currently occupied by über-popular Brixton. Check out the photo of the front today … you can definitely see the resemblance. Below is the Google Street...
Awkward Photo of Little Girl in Bathing Suit
The expression on this girl’s face is bizarre … “why the hell are you making me hold a doll, a B.F. Keith’s sign and this stupid parasol, while sitting on this uncomfortable sand?” Poor girl. She...
A Canadian in Dupont Circle
I was going to go with a title about Canadians coming in peace this time, but I did not want to re-start the old “who burned down the White House?” argument all over again. Indeed, Canada...
