Pauline Floyd was a pioneer and an excellent role model for women pursing a career in law. She was the youngest female lawyer admitted to practice before the Supreme Court.

Many don’t know that the U.S. military began its chemical weapons program on the grounds of today’s American University in upper northwest D.C. Nearly 100,000 employees worked at Camp Leach during World War I. Looking at Google Maps satellite view below, you can kind of see the same layout. Mass Ave above is number 6 […]

Take a look at this old photo of American University. Can you recognize where this is? Source: Library of Congress

It’s that time of year, again. Commencement speakers address graduating college and university classes, and inevitably their speeches are ranked, assessed, complimented, and criticized. This year, both NPR and Vox.com have compiled the best commencement speeches ever. From the lists they created, we’ve found all the commencement addresses that happened in Washington, DC and posted them […]

Times sure were different when these photographs were taken in 1914. These are views of Washington from American University near Tenleytown.

For those of you living in upper northwest, you’re going to like this. It’s the Baist map of parts of Spring Valley and American University Park in 1903. I already know a couple GoDCers, living up that way, who are going to dig this. Check out how many large properties there were up there, prior […]

I received the following email the other day from a GoDCers up near AU Park and Spring Valley. Hello, I love your website. Thank you for researching DC history! I grew up in AU Park — my parents moved into their house the day President Kennedy was shot. The house 2 doors down from my […]

I believe this is Hurst Hall sometime between 1918 and 1920. If you went to AU, how does this compare to the building today? The university has a good history section on their own website that you should check out. Related articles American University Campus in 1899  Washington Senators Secure Moran of Georgetown  Email From […]

I don’t know if you’re a fan of the Dead. I am. Let’s add another concert post on top of Hendrix, the Doors, U2 and Chuck Berry. In their heyday, they passed through down in the fall of 1972 to play a free show at AU in front of about 10,000. It was sponsored by […]