Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Some Favorites from the DCPL Collection

The DC Public Library has put some of its extensive photograph archive onto Flickr, following in the footsteps of the Library of Congress and other institutions. There are currently 154 photographs in the DCPL photostream with a promise of more to come. The collection has historical images of DC streets and buildings, as well as some portraits. Photos in the collection have no known copyright restrictions.

For D.C. residents or visitors, there is a photo contest to accompany the launch of the Flickr collection.

Here are a few of my favorite images so far.

Pauline the Presidential Cow

Planning map of the National Arboretum (1929)

Street market at 7th and B NW (c. 1880)

Great Falls of the Potomac

Old Center Market at Pennsylvania and 7th NW (c. 1910)

As with the Library of Congress collection, users are invited to add tags that make images easier to find. Clicking the images above leads to their Flickr pages, which have more information about the images.