Category: Washington, D.C., gardens

Washington, D.C.

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Small front gardens and a sidewalk cafe on 17th Street, N.W., between H and I Streets, August 1973, by Dick Swanson for DOCUMERICA, via The U.S. National Archives Commons on flickr.

(Click on the image for a better view.)

None of these buildings remain today. The current view (from the ground) is here.

DOCUMERICA was an photography program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). From 1972 to 1977, it hired over 100 photographers to “document subjects of environmental concern.” They created an archive of about 80,000 images.

In addition to recording damage to the nation’s landscapes, the project captured “the era’s trends, fashions, problems, and achievements,” according to the Archives, which held an exhibit of the photos, “Searching for the Seventies,” in 2013.

Memorial Day

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Memorial Day 2, Arlington, E. Bubley, Library of Congress“Decorating a soldier’s grave in one of the Negro sections on Memorial Day [1943],” Arlington Cemetery, Virginia, by Esther Bubley, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The graves of service members were segregated by race until 1948.

U.S. Botanic Garden

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Euphorbia milii, U.S. Botanic Garden, Washington, D.C., 1920, by National Photo Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The plant is a native of Madagascar. Its common name is “crown of thorns.”

The front walk

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new-rollerskates-washdc-1936-harrisewing-library-of-congress“Safety first for this Miss, Washington, D.C.[,] August 8[, 1936]. Equipped with bumpers fore and aft, 4-year-old Betty Buck is taking [no] unnecessary chances as she tries her first pair of roller skates.” Photo and caption by Harris & Ewing, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The castle

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smithsonian-castle-in-snow-1967-smithsonian-on-flickrSmithsonian Institution Building in the snow, Washington, D.C., 1967, photographer unknown, via Smithsonian Institution Commons on flickr.

Two to six inches of snow (and some sleet) are forecast for Washington today.

O! wonderful for weight and whiteness!
Ideolog whose absolutes
Are always proven right
By white and then
More white and white again. . .

— Tom Disch, from “Ode to a Blizzard“