Spring 2001

Photographic Survey Underway

The Pan-American Exposition opened in Buffalo, New York, on September 5, 1901. The following afternoon, President William McKinley greeted visitors to the Temple of Music. As he reached to shake the hand of Leon Czolgosz, Czolgosz revealed a gun and shot the President. McKinley died on September 14 and Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th President of the United States.

Washington, DC, was in mourning that September, when an unknown photographer captured the moment in their 1901 photographic street survey of the city's downtown. The photographs also capture Washingtonians in their period dress and streets shared by horse-drawn carriages and city streetcars. Awnings over the storefronts provided customers and passersby with comfort from the elements, while gas lights provided illumination in the evenings. Building sides provided an important medium of advertising and a documentation of commerce in the early 20th century.

The photographs, which are today housed in the Prints and Photographs Division collection of the Library of Congress, are a popular attraction for tourists and scholars alike. They capture life in Washington at the turn of the 20th Century and help us better understand our city's history and its built environment.

With the assistance of noted architectural photographer Carol Highsmith, DCPL is in the process of replicating the 1901 street survey in order to capture life in Washington at the turn of the 21st Century and to give future tourists and scholars an opportunity to view two centuries of streetscapes side-by-side. The documentation should also be invaluable to future preservationists.

Carol Highsmith will provide a copyright free set of her prints to both DCPL and the Library of Congress. DCPL plans to exhibit the 1901 and 2001 photographs and place them on its Web Site, where they can be downloaded by interested viewers.

DCPL acknowledges and thanks the following corporations for their support of the project: J.S. Wagner Company, the Bernstein Management Group, the Kaempfer Company, Douglas Development Corporation, John Akridge Companies, and the Oliver Carr Company.