Across America

Most American towns were photographed the same way, and for the same reasons. Around 1900 a town that wanted to be taken seriously needed a few things to show off. A courthouse with a dome or a clock tower. A main street with brick blocks and electric streetcars. A railroad depot, a bank, a high school and a public park with a bandstand. Photographers and postcard publishers made a living recording exactly those things.

The pictures in a board like this one come from that habit. Commercial firms such as the Detroit Publishing Company sent photographers around the country making views of streets, hotels and public buildings to sell as prints and postcards. The postcard craze of the early 1900s spread those views by the millions. Even small towns had local photographers who made panoramic pictures of a street parade or a new factory.

Bird's-eye view maps are another source. From the 1860s into the early 1900s, artists drew whole towns as if seen from a hot air balloon, every house, church and smokestack in place. They were sold door to door by subscription, partly as civic boosterism. Many towns were drawn this way at least once.

There is a section on Columbus here. The name says something about how Americans thought about their past. Towns in Ohio, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi and elsewhere took the explorer's name in the 1800s, and the 400th anniversary of his voyage in 1892 brought a wave of celebrations, statues and parades across the country.

The thing to notice in pictures of ordinary towns is how alike they look, and then how they differ. The same storefront cornices, cast-iron columns and plate-glass windows were sold from catalogs and shipped by rail, so Main Street in Kansas can look a lot like Main Street in Pennsylvania. The differences are in the details. Look at what the stores are selling, what people are wearing, whether the street is paved, and whether there is a horse or a car at the curb.