• Resurrection City spent six muddy weeks on the National Mall, within view of landmarks such as the Capitol. (Photo source: Wikipedia Commons)
    MLK's Final Dream
     
     
    A Place for the Poor: Resurrection City
    In 1968, just weeks after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, impoverished Americans flocked to Washington to live out his final dream: economic equality for all.
  • In the early morning hours of May 9, 1970 President Nixon drove to the Lincoln Memorial and mingled with a group of anti-war demonstrators. Here, Nixon chats with Barbara Hirsch, 24, of Cleveland, Ohio (left) and Lauree Moss, of Detroit, Mich. (Photo: © Bettmann/CORBIS)
    Strange But True
     
     
    Nixon's Weirdest Day
    Just days after the Kent State tragedy, President Nixon made a bizarre pre-dawn visit to the Lincoln Memorial to talk with anti-war protesters.
  • Portrait of Lead Belly, National Press Club, Washington, D.C., between 1938 and 1948 (Photo: William P. Gottlieb, Library of Congress)
    Impressions of Washington
     
     
    Lead Belly's "Bourgeois Blues"
    Lead Belly's "Bourgeois Blues," written about his first visit to Washington in 1937, was an incisive indictment of the city’s racial segregation.
  • A group of men are led by police out of a building in handcuffs
    Holy Warriors
     
     
    "Dow Shalt Not Kill"
    The story of the D.C. 9: the Catholics who became convicts in order to stop the war in Vietnam
  • Julius Hobson: Getting Out of the Rat Race
    Julius Hobson
     
     
    Getting Out of the Rat Race
    In 1964, when D.C. wouldn't do anything about the rat problem in Shaw, Julius Hobson gave them an ultimatum: fix the problem, or have it in Georgetown.
  • Student protesters face down riot police on Route 1, University of Maryland, 1970 (Photo source: University of Maryland Special Collections)
    It Happened Here
     
     
    May 1970: College Park Explodes
    When President Nixon announced the U.S. invasion of Cambodia in the spring of 1970, the College Park erupted in the "biggest and most violent" protest in University of Maryland history.
Portrait of Alexander Gardner with a camera, taken around 1860

A Tale of Two Photographers: Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner

4/17/2020 in DC by Katherine Brodt

If you lived in nineteenth-century D.C. and wanted your picture taken, you couldn’t just whip out your own camera—you’d visit Pennsylvania Avenue NW, known locally as “photographer’s row.” This stretch of the avenue, between the White House and the nearly-finished Capitol building, was home to a cluster of photography studios and galleries. Between 1858 and 1881, the most fashionable and famous was Brady’s National Photographic Art Gallery. It was run by Mathew Brady and his manager, Alexander Gardner, whose partnership endured its own civil war. 

The History & Survival of Washington D.C.’s Chinatown

4/10/2020 in DC by Karis Lee
The Friendship Arch in D.C.’s Chinatown today

When walking the streets of downtown D.C. near Penn Quarter, Washington’s Chinatown is difficult to miss.  The vibrant Friendship Archway marks the entrance of the neighborhood, and if you look closely, you’ll even be able to spot markers of the Chinese zodiac on the crosswalks. But despite the area’s seemingly thriving shops and restaurants, Chinatown’s Chinese population today is estimated to be as low as 300. Things weren’t always this way, though. In fact, Chinatown was first located in a different D.C. neighborhood altogether. So how did Washington’s Chinese community first develop? What was Chinatown like before, and how and why did that change?

Dolley Madison in 1848, seated at a table

Dolley Madison, the Queen of Washington

3/26/2020 in DC by Katherine Brodt

Today she is widely remembered for her heroism during the War of 1812, when she saved a portrait of George Washington from being taken and burned by British invaders. But during her lifetime, Dolley Madison was best known as a prominent socialite, hostess, and politician in her own right—one of the country’s first celebrity personalities. 

The Filipino Women’s Club of Washington D.C.

3/20/2020 in DC by Karis Lee
Filipino Woman's Club, Washington, D.C.

When the U.S. entered WWII in late 1941, women all over Washington stepped up to fulfill wartime needs; and Filipino women were certainly no exception. The Filipino Women's Club of Washington, formed in 1943, played a crucial role in the war effort and inspired community when the city most needed it. 

The 1868 Mayoral Election, African-American Vote, and Riots That Followed

3/12/2020 in DC by Karis Lee
Howard University near Miner Hall in 1867

On January 8, 1867, Congress passed the District of Columbia Suffrage Bill, granting African-American men the right to vote for the first time in U.S. history. D.C.’s black community was ecstatic. But though this was certainly an exciting start, the stakes surrounding the black vote escalated in June 1868, when the two candidates for Washington’s new mayor promised vastly different futures for the city.

Mystic Nobles in the District

3/3/2020 in DC by Emily Robinson
Shriners Parade, Washington, D.C. Nile, Seattle, Wash., 5/6/23 i.e., 6/5/23. District of Columbia United States Washington D.C. Washington D.C, 1923. [June 5] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016826905/.

In June of 1923, Washington, D.C. prepared for thousands of men to descend upon the city for the 49th  annual session of the Imperial Council of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In other words, the Shriners were coming to town. Over the course of June 5, 6, and 7, the city would become a sea of fezzes as thousands of Shriners took part in a number of different events throughout the city, including a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, a massive concert at American League Park, and even an open invitation to overtake the White House by the President himself.

Portrait of Josiah Henson, 1876

"Not Fiction, but Fact": Josiah Henson and the Real Uncle Tom's Cabin

2/25/2020 in Maryland by Katherine Brodt

Josiah Henson is not a well-known name in American history—or even in the Washington area, where he was enslaved for many years. Born into bondage in Maryland, he lived in Montgomery County before eventually escaping to Canada—there, he served in the army, became a preacher, and established a prosperous settlement for escaped slaves. He was immortalized in Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, serving as the inspiration for the titular character. But though the novel made him a well-known and popular figure in the nineteenth century, Henson was determined to tell his own story. As he says, the truth is stranger than fiction. 

William Porter and Helen Leavitt sit on the back of a stagecoach, showing a banner that reads, "Taxation Without Representation."

In Washington, "Taxation Without Representation" is History

2/12/2020 in DC by Katherine Brodt

Most Americans are familiar with the phrase, of course. It brings to mind images of the Revolutionary War—colonists protesting a series of taxes imposed on them by the British Parliament, despite their lack of involvement in its affairs. According to tradition, the battle cry of “taxation without representation is tyranny” originated in Boston, where it featured in such famous displays as the Boston Tea Party.  In the popular imagination, the phrase defined the conflict that lead to the creation of our own, more just government. So how did the phrase come to be associated with Washington, D.C., the center of that government?

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