• Bob Dylan in 1963 as pictured in St. Lawrence University yearbook. (Source: Wikipedia)
    Music History
     
     
    Bob Dylan's Greatest Pic
    When Bob Dylan played the Washington Coliseum in 1965, a local photographer sneaked backstage and took a photo that ended up winning a Grammy for Best Album cover.
  • It Happened Here
     
     
    Ebola Comes to Reston
    Looking at old photos of Isaac Newton Square in Reston, Virginia you would never guess that a silent killer once lurked here.
  • View of AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall on October 11, 2018. (Photograph courtesy of The NAMES Project.)
    Washington in the 1980s
     
     
    D.C. Confronts the AIDS Crisis
    On October 11, 1987, a quilt blanketed the National Mall, but the atmosphere in Washington was far from warm and fuzzy.
  • Urban Renewal in D.C.
     
     
    What Should Happen to The Tivoli?
    The Tivoli, a once grand movie theater, became a site for a massive debate over urban renewal in Columbia Heights in the 1980s and 1990s.
  • Integrated classroom at Anacostia High School in 1957.
    Local Activists and Black Churches
     
     
    The Push for School Desegregation in DC
    In the 1940s and 50s, DC's Black churches supported parents-turned-activists as they took on school segregation in Washington.

Turkey Tayac's Fight for the Piscataway People

8/24/2022 in Maryland by Meaghan Kacmarcik
A photograph of the Potomac river. There are two trees on either side of the image. There looks to be two men on a dock in the distance. The water is flat.

For years, Turkey Tayac fought almost singlehandedly for the rights and recognition of his Native American group, the Piscataways. In the 1950s, he found some unlikely allies and successfully fended off an effort to build high rise apartments on sacred Piscataway lands in southern Maryland. A few years later, he helped convince the National Park Service to preserve the land for posterity. It was a remarkable achievement, and Turkey Tayac's work for inclusion would continue, even after his death.

This is a black and white photograph of a woman wearing a mask, she wears a hat with the familiar plus sign associated with the Red Cross. Despite the mask covering most of her face, she wears a serious expression.

The Perils of Pandemic and War: Spanish Flu Brings D.C. to its Knees

8/15/2022 in DC by Meaghan Kacmarcik

It was the start of October and the dog days of summer in the nation’s capital had officially come to an end. The crisp autumn air, a relief to most Washingtonians in years past, was an ominous foreshadowing of the days and weeks to come. There would be no more open windows in homes, streetcars, or workplaces for the foreseeable future. With an invisible killer hanging in the air, Washington would soon find itself in crisis — and transplanted war workers bore the brunt of it.

Mighty Yet Stubby: A Four-Legged War Hero Takes D.C. By Storm

8/9/2022 in DC by Meaghan Kacmarcik
A black and white photo of Stubby. He stands on all fours and stares past the camera. He wears his chamois n blanket with numerous medals pinned on.

Stubby, the World War I war dog looms large in animal and American military history. By no means a professionally trained canine, Stubby was smuggled from Connecticut to France where he first served in a morale position. He took on a greater role as he got used to warfare, aiding the troops any way he could. When he came back to America, he became a celebrity, especially in Washington, DC.  

Encore: How the Tivoli became the Epicenter of a Debate over Urban Renewal

7/27/2022 in DC by Jenna Furtado
The revitalized Tivoli Theater in Columbia Heights, with tan walls and a red roof in an Italian architectural style. There is a large marquee, and signs with the word "Tivoli."

The Tivoli Theater's grand opening in 1924 was heralded by a grand parade and a carnival which attracted hundreds of Washingtonian's to the Golden Age movie theater. Yet, just over 50 years later, the Tivoli had its windows bolted up and doors closed, no longer the shining light in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. What followed afterwards was a dramatic decades-long fight over the fate of the Tivoli, bringing up questions surrounding urban renewal and the future of the neighborhood, which had suffered greatly after the 1968 riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Grant Us More Jazz on the Radio: How Felix Grant Brought Jazz to the D.C. Airwaves

7/26/2022 in DC by Meaghan Kacmarcik
An up close shot of Grant talking into a microphone (1960).

Shock rippled through the steamy streets of Washington, DC, in early August 1979. The source of the buzz was not the result of back-to-back testing of nuclear weapons by the United States and the Soviet Union. It was not even the sale of the nearby Baltimore Orioles to D.C. lawyer Edward Bennett Williams for the grand sum of $12.3 million. The source of the city’s consternation involved the smooth timbre of a DMV staple – or the lack thereof. Felix Grant – one of Washington’s most beloved radio deejays for a generation – was being pulled from the airwaves.

A view of Southwest from above. This is from pre-urban renewal circa 1939. Crowded streets full of buildings are in the foreground and the Capitol building is visible in the background.

The Cost of Urban Renewal in Southwest DC

7/21/2022 in DC by Meaghan Kacmarcik

After World War II, Southwest Washington, DC, underwent a bout of complete urban renewal to clean up the blighted neighborhood. But was it worth it? New buildings went up, but a community was torn apart, economic segregation ensued and the project failed to deliver on many of the promises that were made.


 

Can you hear me now? The Birth of Wireless Communication on L Street

7/14/2022 in DC by Emily Robinson
Illustration of the Photophone’s Receiver, Originally From: 1881 1880. http://www.bluehaze.com.au/modlight/ModLightBiblio.htm. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photophony1.jpg.

Of all the great minds to inhabit Washington, D.C. through the years, perhaps one of the most consequential yet often overlooked, was Alexander Graham Bell. Though his famous 1876 telephone experiment took place in Boston, Bell moved to the District shortly thereafter and worked on what he considered to be his greatest inventions in several Northwest labs over the next few decades. Of his many D.C.-based achievements, perhaps the most significant occurred at his small lab on L Street and led to the eventual birth of fiberoptic communication.

GALA Hispanic Theatre: Celebrating Latin American Culture in the Arts

7/12/2022 in DC by Jenna Furtado
A closeup on the marquee of the Tivoli theatre. A vertical red sign reads "GALA" and the words on the marquee advertise ticket sales.

The 1970s and 1980s saw increased Latin American immigration to the United States, and to D.C. in particular. At the time, there was limited access to Latin American performing arts, something that Rebecca Read and Hugo Medrano sought to fix when they founded Grupo de Latinoamericanos Artistes (GALA) in 1976. They never expected, though, that GALA would take off and eventually become the National Center for the Latino Performing Arts. Their journey to becoming cultural icons in D.C. also coincided with the changing Latin American community in the District.

The Burning of Paper, Not Children: A Look at the Catonsville Nine

6/29/2022 in Maryland by Jenna Furtado
The Catonsville Nine after they got arrested after the action. Pictured are (l-r standing) George Mische, Philip Berrigan, Daniel Berrigan, Tom Lewis. (l-r seated) David Darst, Mary Moylan, John Hogan, Marjorie Melville, Tom Melville. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

In 1968, nine members of the Catholic Faith entered a Selective Services office in the sleepy town of Catonsville, Maryland. They grabbed hundreds of draft files from the office and took them to the parking lot below, where they burned the files with homemade napalm. These people, known as the Catonsville Nine, represented one small part of the Catholic Left movement, yet became known nationwide for their action and commitment to their beliefs. 

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