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The Smithsonian Institution Building provided a bird's eye view of the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. The Castle's towers provided a clear view across to battles in Virginia and Maryland. Union soldiers drilled on the grounds surrounding the Institution. And the influx of soldiers and citizens to the nation's capital increased the number of visitors to the Smithsonian's exhibits and programs. These images show how remote the Castle was from downtown Washington and how close it was to nearby Confederate Virginia.

"Civil War Washingotn, DC." A private blog April 2, 2102 posting gives historical overview of Washington City Canal, once envisioned as a key artery linking the capital with the West via the Potomac and C&O Canal. Backs up narrative with primary sources, e.g. maps, photos, newspapers. Great Library of Congress photos are consolidated here, including overview of Canal w clear view of waterworks and of cattle grazing on its banks.

"Civil War Washingotn, DC." A private blog April 2, 2102 posting gives historical overview of Washington City Canal, once envisioned as a key artery linking the capital with the West via the Potomac and C&O Canal. Backs up narrative with primary sources, e.g. maps, photos, newspapers. Great Library of Congress photos are consolidated here, including overview of Canal w clear view of waterworks and of cattle grazing on its banks.

A book, written by Theodore Roosevelt, that offers an analysis of the factors that led into, what occurred during and after the war of 1812. This book would provide insight into how the war affected D.C., and also give a glimpse into the mindset of how one of America's most influential presidents might have been influenced by events in the past.

Since the creation of the District of Columbia, antislavery reformers had decried the presence of slavery as a contradiction of the nation's founding principles of freedom, equality, and justice. The nation's capital was a natural target for the early antislavery movement. Constitutionally, Congress controlled the District of Columbia through "exclusive jurisdiction" and could eliminate the slave trade and slavery itself within its borders at any time. When the federal government moved to Washington in 1800, Congress agreed to enforce Maryland's laws in the city, including both slavery and a "black code" that restricted the freedom of all African Americans, slave and free. As a southern city, Washington was a congenial place for slavery to take root. In 1800, thirty percent of the District of Columbia's residents were African Americans, fewer than one-fifth of them free. From its very beginning, visitors and government officials from the North and abroad condemned the capital for its open slave markets, economic reliance on slavery, exploitation of African Americans, and racial discrimination. Immediately after moving into the White House, for example, Abigail Adams wrote contemptuously that "The effects of slavery are visible everywhere." The institution continued to grow steadily until 1830, when the number of slaves in Washington reached its peak, representing twelve percent of the city's population. At the same time, Washington began supplanting Baltimore as a regional center of the slave trade. After 1830, slavery began to decline in Washington as the slave trade drained laborers from the faltering tobacco plantations of the Chesapeake region. Between 1830 and 1860, the slave population fell from its peak of twelve percent to just three percent of the District of Columbia's residents, about 3,300.

Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit A First Step for Racial Equality in the Circuit Court of Washington In 1843, when Nancy Hillman, the only surviving heir of Georgetown's most prominent free black man, tried to collect on money he was owed for 20 years, she faced two obstacles in the Circuit Court. The D.C. Judge Who Bedeviled President Lincoln In the midst of the Civil War, one D.C. judge so irritated Abraham Lincoln that the President ordered his salary withheld and armed soldiers were sent to his home. As if that wasn't enough, the court on which the judge sat, the principal court that had served the District since the inception of its judicial system, was abolished -- primarily to get rid of the judge. An Early Civil Rights Victory in a D.C. Court In 1821 - long before the civil rights movement - a free black man living in Washington won an historic victory for racial justice in a court of the District of Columbia. The Dark Days of the Black Codes Fourteen-year-old Nancy Jones was scared. She had been stopped by a policeman while walking down a Washington, D.C. street, and he had asked to see her papers. Nancy had good cause to be afraid. She was an African American, and it was 1835. And she did not have the papers. The policeman immediately arrested her as a runaway slave. Yet, Nancy was not a slave and never had been one.

Quick-fix, feature-story approach to some of DCs major historic events. Includes 1924 World Series Win; Beatles at the Washington Coliseum; Marian Anderson at Lincoln Memorial, Burning of Washington.