The sad truth is that slave pens existed in and around all of Washington. This photo shows one of those in Alexandria during the 1860s. We dug these up at the Library of Congress. Source: Library of Congress

These old Civil War photos of Alexandria are amazing. This one shows the steam frigate Pensacola in 1861, the beginning of the war. Click on it for some incredible details. Source: Library of Congress We also came across some amazing old photos of the frigate here.

We posted a great old photo of the old State Department Building earlier. Here’s another, similar angle photo of the building, but much clearer. Click on it for some amazing details. Does anyone know why there are a large number of wooden boxes at the main entrance to the building? Those seem too small to […]

Here is an old Civil War map of Arlington. This map was for reconnaissance, done by Benjamin Church. The orientation is a little different with north being down and to the right. Click on it for a larger version to study it. Source: Library of Congress

Wow. What amazing detail in this photograph. Click on it to view the larger version (and you’ll probably spend about 15 minutes staring at it).