DC -- GWU -- Museum and Textile Museum -- Exhibit: Treasures from the Albert H. Small Collection:
Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.
Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
Slide Show: Want to see the pictures as a slide show?
[Slideshow]
Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]
Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
GWMTRE_170517_001.JPG: Jockey Club Sign:
For 42 years this sign beckoned diners into the Jockey Club at the Fairfax Hotel off Dupont Circle. The restaurant was the place for political powerbrokers, fashionable ladies, and celebrities to see and be seen. First Lady Nancy Reagan, the Kennedys, and actor Kirk Douglas all were patrons.
GWMTRE_170517_008.JPG: Present State, [of the] Washington [Monument]:
Oxcarts deliver marble blocks to build the Washington Monument as workers cut and shape stones in 1853. Construction on the monument, designed by Robert Mills, stalled the next year when funding ran out. The 158-foot unfinished stump was considered a sad eyesore. Finally government funds permitted work to resume in 1876.
GWMTRE_170517_014.JPG: District of Columbia Bicentennial:
Issued to commemorate the bicentennial of George Washington's choice of the site for the capital city, these stamps offer a circa 1903 view of Pennsylvania Avenue looking east from the Treasury. The artist placed a yellow city streetcar in the foreground, emphasizing the working city, with the Capitol in the distance.
GWMTRE_170517_022.JPG: Lottery Tickets:
Superintendent of the Federal City and land speculator Samuel Blodget Jr., organized two lotteries to help finance the building of early Washington. The ten tickets on this sheet were each signed by Blodget, but were never separated and sold. The lotteries failed to raise the amounts needed.
GWMTRE_170517_025.JPG: An Automobile Line-Up at Washington:
According to Leslie's Weekly, the US Capitol was a popular starting line for early auto races. The Winton (second from right) was manufactured in Cleveland, Ohio. To promise his cars, founder Alexander Winton often entered them in races. The company eventually failed because the expensive cars could not compete with affordable Fords.
Leslie's Weekly, July 26, 1906
GWMTRE_170517_029.JPG: Atlantic Steam Ship Co., From Washington to New York:
All aboard for New York! Until the late 1800s, Georgetown was a busy port for passenger travel and cargo shipping. Comfortable steamships offered travelers a pleasant alternative to stagecoach rides over rutted roads and noisy, dirty railroads. In 1865 passage to New York, including meals and board, cost just $10.
Printed broadside by Gibson Bros., Washington DC, ca 1865.
GWMTRE_170517_033.JPG: $100,000 Reward!
Six days after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1854, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton issued this wanted poster for John Wilkes Booth and accomplices John Surratt and David Herold (both misspelled on the poster). Lacking technology to mass-produce photos, the printer glued the pictures onto the posters, and relatively few were made.
Broadside, US Department of War, 1865
GWMTRE_170517_038.JPG: "The Gettysburg Portrait" of Abraham Lincoln:
Alexander Gardner took this portrait of Lincoln 11 days before Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in November 1863. In his weary features is the resolute expression of a strong leader.
Photograph by Alexander Gardner, copy 49 of a limited edition of 75 printed from the original 1863 glass plate, ca 1990.
GWMTRE_170517_041.JPG: Life Mask of Abraham Lincoln:
On the eve of the 1860 Republican Presidential Nominating Convention in Chicago, Lincoln sat for this plaster likeness. His face then lacked the iconic beard and deep worry lines that later came with his presidency. To make the cast, Lincoln let wet plaster dry on his face before it was carefully removed for the sculptor's use.
Original 1860 plaster life mask by Leonard Volk; late 19th-century reproduction.
GWMTRE_170517_046.JPG: Putting It Together Salon Style
GWMTRE_170517_050.JPG: To the Officers and Members of the Presidents Mounted Guard:
This sheet music cover shows four officers with plumed hats on horseback in front of the White House. The President's Mounted Quickstep polka honored Samuel Owen's Independent Company of Cavalry, a DC militia company founded in 1853. The unit guarded the Capitol during the first months of the Civil War. They did not, however, dress as pictured.
Lithograph by Sarony for Hilbus & Hitz, New York, ca 1850.
GWMTRE_170517_054.JPG: Library of Congress Bookplate:
The inside front covers of privately owned books once bore little prints known as bookplates to identify the owner (and ease their return when borrowed). Libraries also used them as a cataloging device. This plate identified a volume of government documents from the 15th Congress. Some collectors still use personalized, decorative plates today.
Printed for the Library of Congress, ca 1820.
GWMTRE_170517_059.JPG: Carte Particuliere de Virginie, Maryland, Pennsilvanie, La Nouvelle Jarsey. Orient et Occidentale.
This early navigational chart details the colonies of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania off the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. It follows the tradition of early portolan (sailing) charts that were oriented with west facing the top, and north facing right. Colonial sailors relied on such charts for information on the water's depths, shoals, and inlets.
Pierre Mortier, Amsterdam, ca 1700.
GWMTRE_170517_065.JPG: Top of the Washington Monument, Setting the Capstone:
Workers and spectators on wooden platforms cheer the setting of the aluminum capstone that completed the Washington Monument in 1885. The culmination of nearly a century of effort, the monument was then the world's tallest building at 555 feet, 5-1/8 inches tall. The aluminum of the capstone was considered a precious metal.
Colored woodcut by Alexander Millar, Washintgon DC, 1885.
GWMTRE_170517_070.JPG: Panoramic View of Washington City, from the New Dome of the Capitol, Looking West:
This detailed landscape predicted how Washington would appear if the Capitol were redesigned and expanded according to plans of 1851. While the dome is similar to the finished version in shape and height, instead of a white covering, it is shown clad in aged copper, as was the Capitol's first dome.
Chromolithograph by Edward Sachse, printer, published by Casimir Bohn, Washington DC, 1856.
GWMTRE_170517_083.JPG: Bank of Washington Note, 1810s
Paper currency once was printed from engraved copper plates like these made for the Bank of Washington. In the early 19th century, the US government minted silver and gold coin money but did not issue paper bills. Patrons deposited their heavy federal coins at local banks in exchange for more easily handled paper bank notes. In turn the notes were redeemable for gold or silver.
Modern reprint from original plate.
GWMTRE_170517_088.JPG: Sixteenth Street Churches (1970)
by Lily Spandorf
GWMTRE_170517_092.JPG: Little Tavern, Georgetown (2015)
Lithograph by Paul McGehee, number 3 of 500
GWMTRE_170517_103.JPG: View of Lower Gisborough
Watercolor by unknown artist, ca 1830
GWMTRE_170517_106.JPG: Judah P. Benjamin
GWMTRE_170517_113.JPG: Armory Hospital, 7th Street Armory Square, Washington DC
1863
GWMTRE_170517_122.JPG: Plan for Draining and Grading:
Washington DC's low-lying land has been prone to flooding since the shortly after its inception, as development silted up or blocked the Potomac River's flow. In 1900 the US Army Corps of Engineers commissioned an engineering firm to design new grading and drains, noted in red, to improve the National Mall and the area between Pennsylvania Avenue NW and today's Independence Avenue SW. At right is Capitol Hill.
US Army Corps of Engineers, 1900
GWMTRE_170517_127.JPG: John Bull and the Baltimoreans:
British "John Bull" begs for mercy from the defenders of Baltimore in this War of 1812 cartoon. American forces held off the British attack at Fort McHenry and drove the British troops out. Among the casualties was British commander General Robert Ross (top left).
by William Charles, November 1814
GWMTRE_170517_134.JPG: Johnny Bull and the Alexandrians:
This cartoon satirizes how the citizens of Alexandria, Virginia, gave up without a fight when the British ("Johnny Bull") invaded their town in August 1814. Alexandria Mayor Charles Simms surrendered and turned over the city's stores of tobacco, rum, and other supplies. Here Johnny Bull, unfurling the terms of surrender, represents the powerful British force's arrogance.
by William Charles, November 1814.
GWMTRE_170517_140.JPG: View of the Mall from the Castle:
James Renwick Jr's 1855 Norman castle, the original Smithsonian Institution building, takes no a life of its own in a fantastical thunderstorm. The artist skews the perspective of the roof to evoke a panoramic photograph, while the Natural History Museum, Washington Monument, and Capitol peek from beyond the castle's realistically painted red sandstone towers and turrets.
by Robert Haas, 1983
GWMTRE_170517_144.JPG: Two Men, One Goal, and a Notebook
GWMTRE_170517_151.JPG: A Collection of Pictures showing the Present Condition of the Twenty-Six Original Boundary-Stones between the District of Columbia and Maryland
Pictured and described by Fred E. Woodward, 1905
GWMTRE_170517_192.JPG: Meet the Collector
GWMTRE_170517_205.JPG: Portrait of Albert H. Small
by Bradley Stevens, 2012
GWMTRE_170517_209.JPG: A Collector's Vision
GWMTRE_170517_212.JPG: Albert H. Small displayed and stored his renowned collection of Washingtoniana in his Bethesda, Maryland, office before donating it to the George Washington University Museum in 2014.
Description of Subject Matter: Treasures from the Albert H. Small Collection
Ongoing
A selection of maps, letters, prints, and artifacts on display from the museum’s Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection includes recent acquisitions and rare treasures.
Mr. Small, a third-generation Washingtonian, first became interested in historical collecting after serving in the Navy during World War II. In 2011, Mr. Small donated his unrivaled Washingtoniana collection—nearly sixty years in the making—to GW. The collection documents the formation, development and history of Washington from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- GWU -- Museum and Textile Museum -- Exhibit: Treasures from the Albert H. Small Collection) directly related to this one:
[Display ALL photos on one page]:
2022_DC_GWU_Museum_Treasure: DC -- GWU -- Museum and Textile Museum -- Exhibit: Treasures from the Albert H. Small Collection (30 photos from 2022)
2020_DC_GWU_Museum_Treasure: DC -- GWU -- Museum and Textile Museum -- Exhibit: Treasures from the Albert H. Small Collection (48 photos from 2020)
2019_DC_GWU_Museum_Treasure: DC -- GWU -- Museum and Textile Museum -- Exhibit: Treasures from the Albert H. Small Collection (17 photos from 2019)
2015_DC_GWU_Museum_Treasure: DC -- GWU -- Museum and Textile Museum -- Exhibit: Treasures from the Albert H. Small Collection (2 photos from 2015)
2017 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Trips this year:
Civil War Trust conferences in Pensacola, FL, Chattanooga, TN (via sites in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) and Fredericksburg, VA,
a family reunion in The Dells, Wisconsin (via sites in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin),
New York City, and
my 12th consecutive San Diego Comic Con trip (including sites in Arizona).
For some reason, several of my photos have been published in physical books this year which is pretty cool. Ones that I know about:
"Tarzan, Jungle King of Popular Culture" (David Lemmo),
"The Great Crusade: A Guide to World War I American Expeditionary Forces Battlefields and Sites" (Stephen T. Powers and Kevin Dennehy),
"The American Spirit" (David McCullough),
"Civil War Battlefields: Walking the Trails of History" (David T. Gilbert),
"The Year I Was Peter the Great: 1956 — Khrushchev, Stalin's Ghost, and a Young American in Russia" (Marvin Kalb), and
"The Judge: 26 Machiavellian Lessons" (Ron Collins and David Skover).
Number of photos taken this year: just below 560,000.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Limiting Text: You can turn off all of this text by clicking this link:
[Thumbnails Only]