Tag: 1850s

What a lovely old photo of the Smithsonian Castle in 1856. Click on it for incredible details. The...

This lovely painting shows Georgetown in the distance as it looked in 1855. View of Georgetown D.C. /...

This is the oldest known photo of the U.S. Department of State. The photo is from 1857 and shows the old State Department building,...

The area formerly known as Peach Grove eventually came to be known as Tysons Crossroads and then Tysons Corner after William Tyson.

Check this out ... it's an old 1858 plan for the Navy Yard. Source: Library of Congress

Whoa. This one is amazing. James Buchanan was the president when this photo was taken -- unless it was early that year, then it...

Have you ever seen a photo of the White House stables? We haven't actually come across one until we found this at the Library...

Now this has to be one of the best maps we've come across recently. It shows Washington in the 1850s, marking all the buildings,...

This is an extremely rare photograph of James Buchanan's Inauguration at the East Front of the Capitol Building on March 4th, 1857. It's a...

How cool is this? It's an 1852 dollar bill issued by the Bank of the United States. Source: currencyquest.com

Here's a fascinating old advertisement sent in by a GoDCer. Nancy sent in an old ad for her great-great grandfather's business. Source: GoDCer Nancy

Here is a cool series of photographs from the 1850s, when the Department of Treasury's building on 15th St. was under construction. Source: Library of...

Now this is a really super old photo of Washington from around 1857. Click on it for a much larger version to...

We came across some interesting history while digging through the rabbit hole that is Wikipedia. David Levy Yulee, of Florida, was not only one...

Know any sober gardeners in the area? If so, in 1857, the could have earned $200 per year, with room and board. Good Hope...

This is an old advertisement for railroad tickets between Washington, Baltimore and points west. A ticket from Washington to Cincinnati was $11, Chicago was...

Here is an interesting video that we found, showing a collection of really old photos of D.C. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyjhT0Z0g9Y  

Here's an ad in the paper that you're not terribly likely to see today. It was printed in the Daily Evening Star on July...

This is so cool. Montgomery C. Meigs placed an advertisement in the Daily Evening Star on August 1st, 1853, exactly 160 years ago today....

Now this is a cool old (really old) advertisement from the Daily Evening Star, printed on July 5th, 1854. It's an advertisement for omnibus...

What a great photo. We found another terrific source of images, though, unfortunately they're not high resolution. Source: New York Public Library