Snapshots of the Past

[Washington, D.C. ca. 1803. The President's House (slightly to left of center), Gales' House (to rt. of center, over head of ox), Old Patent Office, New Post Office (to the right)] – Historic Print

[Washington, D.C. ca. 1803. The President's House (slightly to left of center), Gales' House (to rt. of center, over head of ox), Old Patent Office, New Post Office (to the right)] — historic image
[Washington, D.C. ca. 1803. The President's House (slightly to left of center), Gales' House (to rt. of center, over head of ox), Old Patent Office, New Post Office (to the right)]. Historic image from the White House 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

This rare historic image captures [Washington, D.C. ca. 1803. The President's House (slightly to left of center), Gales' House (to rt. of center, over head of ox), Old Patent Office, New Post Office (to the right)] in remarkable detail. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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[Washington, D.C. ca. 1803. The President's House (slightly to left of center), Gales' House (to rt. of center, over head of ox), Old Patent Office, New Post Office (to the right)]

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The foreground ox sets this view apart from the many images of the President's House. The house sits slightly left of center, and the caption places Gales' House, the Old Patent Office, and the New Post Office to the right. Joseph Gales, a newspaper publisher, is a likely namesake for the house, though the card does not say so. The card records no date, so the ca. 1803 estimate is only a rough guide. James Hoban's residence was completed around 1800, when Washington was still a sparsely built city, so the scene shows the capital in its earliest years.

Medium1 item.
Notes[no date recorded on caption card]
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,111 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-125566

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