Naval Observatory – Vintage Photo Print
![Naval Observatory, [between 1918 and 1920] — historic photograph](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/fa/fa0a3e56baf4-L.webp)
(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 photograph captures Naval Observatory in remarkable detail. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
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Naval Observatory
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The United States Naval Observatory, on the high ground in northwest Washington, D.C., is the institution this glass negative records, and the subject is named in the title and in the catalog's subject headings for astronomical observatories and instruments. The observatory had been the Navy's center for timekeeping and celestial navigation since the 1840s, and its instruments supplied the time signals and star charts that ships and the public relied on. Taken by the National Photo Company in the years just after the First World War, the image belongs to a commercial effort to document the capital's public buildings and landmarks. The negative's surface shows streaks and blemishes from the gradual decay of its original coating, which is worth noticing when comparing it with cleaner prints from the same collection.
| Created / published | [between 1918 and 1920] |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller |
| Genre | Glass negatives. |
| Notes | Title from unverified data provided by the National Photo Company on the negatives or negative sleeves. Date from negatives in same range. Gift; Herbert A. French; 1947. This glass negative might show streaks and other blemishes resulting from a natural deterioration in the original coatings. Temp. note: Batch one. |
| Subjects | United States Naval Observatory. Astronomical observatories. Astronomical instruments. United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.) |
| Source | Library of Congress, National Photo Company Collection |
| Original scan | 4,421 × 3,333 px · prints to 15 × 11 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-NPC-229569 |
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