Snapshots of the Past

[Unidentified Washington, D.C., building exterior] – Vintage Wall Art

[Unidentified Washington, D.C., building exterior], [190-?] — historic photograph
[Unidentified Washington, D.C., building exterior], [190-?]. Historic photograph from the Washington DC collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Few images capture their era like this historic photograph of [Unidentified Washington, D.C., building exterior]. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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[Unidentified Washington, D.C., building exterior]

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The building in this cyanotype has never been identified, so the picture's value lies in its unusual printing method. A cyanotype is made by exposing light-sensitive paper to sunlight, which produces a white image on a deep blue ground, the same process used for architectural blueprints. Frances Benjamin Johnston, a Washington photographer who recorded the city's buildings and institutions, made and collected many prints of this kind during the 1900s. Because the record gives no name or address, the print is best read as evidence of how Washington architecture was documented in that decade, and of the cyanotype's brief popularity before cheaper photographic papers took over.

Created / published[190-?]
Medium1 photographic print : cyanotype.
GenreCyanotypes 1900-1910.
SubjectsTitle and other information transcribed from caption card and item. Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection (Library of Congress). Caption card tracings: Architecture Colls. (5); Washington, D.C. -- Buildings, Non-govt.; Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,175 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-135814

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