Ghosts of DC

Try an address, a neighborhood, a name or a year, like “14th and U” or “1968.”

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Faces & Places of Yesterday

Vintage photos of Washington, DC. Ordinary people on stoops, sidewalks, and streetcars. Faces and corners of a city most of us would no longer recognize.

591 stories
military men in Washington, DC circa 1918Senators Hear a Pilot Through a Radiotelephone, Washington 1918May 8, 2023Union soldiers guarding the Potomac River in Washington, DC in 1861. Georgetown University is visible in the background. Photo by George BarnardA Rare Look at Union Soldiers Guarding the Potomac River in 1861Apr 28, 2023View of Rosslyn over the Key Bridge in 1964Rosslyn From Georgetown in 1964Mar 10, 2023May 1865. "Another artillery unit passing on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Treasury." Wet plate glass negative by Mathew Brady.Washington DC in 1865: A Mathew Brady PhotoMar 5, 2023Four prize winners in annual beauty show, Washington Bathing Beach (1922)Washington Bathing Beach Beauty Contest Winners, 1922Mar 4, 2023Lewis Hine’s Photos of Child Workers at the Alexandria Glass CompanyFeb 28, 2023Washington, D.C. A street scene showing street cars crossing at 14th Street and New York Avenue, photographed from a building near the Lotus ClubStreetcars at 14th and New York Avenue in 1939Feb 27, 2023Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., illuminated at night by thousands of electric bulbs strung in festoons for Woodrow Wilson's first inauguration, March 1913.Wilson Cancelled the 1913 Inaugural Ball. The Avenue Lit UpFeb 24, 2023View looking east from the middle of a frozen Tidal Basin upon which many individuals are walking or skating. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is visible in the distance.Frozen Tidal Basin: Walking and Skating on the Ice in DCFeb 19, 2023
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