Washington at the Start of the Civil War

Our tale beings with an ebook. I subscribe to Early Bird Books’ daily emails of discounted ebooks. Friday they usually send out a multi-category sale, and on Sundays there’s usually a history-specific sale. At some point along they way, they offered Lucinda Prout Janke’s A Guide to Civil War Washington, DC, a book that isContinue reading “Washington at the Start of the Civil War”

Revisiting the Washington That Never Was

You haven’t lived until you’ve digitally clipped mid-19th-century cursive from a scan of a faded and dirty print. This is B.F. Smith’s landscape of Washington, showing projected improvements in the capital city — the Washington Monument, a stone bridge across the Washington City Canal — from 1852. I found this on the Library of CongressContinue reading “Revisiting the Washington That Never Was”

The Washington That Never Was

While looking through the Library of Congress’ website yesterday, I found this vintage 1852 image of Washington, DC, done by the same company that did the map of Baltimore of 1868. “Oh, wow,” I said. “This is cool. There’s the Smithsonian Castle, designed by James Renwick. There’s Trinity Episcopal, also designed by Renwick. There’s theContinue reading “The Washington That Never Was”