Ghosts of Washington

7th Street, Washington, DC

9 Mile Circle, Ellicott City, MD

13 S. King Street, Leesburg, VA

16th Street NW, Washington, DC

17th Street, Washington DC

1317½ 14th Street, Washington, DC

1340 G Street, Washington, DC

2032 Wyoming Avenue, Washington, DC

8010 Main Street, Ellicott City, MD

8133 Main Street, Ellicott City, MD

Bank of Charles Town, Charles Town, WV

Beauty Pageant Winners, Union Station, Washington, DC

Boy Scouts, US Capitol, Washington, DC

Capitol Cornucopia, Washington, DC

Carlyle House, Alexandria, V

Carvel Hall, Annapolis, M

Congressional Hog Calling, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC

Courthouse, Main St, Warrenton, VA

Doing the Charleston at the Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC: 'Rep. T.S. McMillan of Charleston, S.C. with flappers, Miss Ruth Bennett and Miss Sylvia Clavins, who are doing the Charleston on railing'

Easter Egg Roll at the US Capitol

F St. NW, Washington, DC

Farragut Statue, Washington, DC

Ford’s Theatre, Washington, DC

Harper’s Ferry, WV

Inlet Bridge, Washington, DC: Margaret Gorman, the first Miss America

Jones Point

Kenmore Dedication, Fredericksburg, VA

King and Market, Leesburg, VA

King Street, Leesburg, VA

Leader Theater, 9th St., Washington, DC

Lincoln Memorial Dedication, May 30, 1922

Loudoun County Courthouse, Leesburg, VA

Loudoun Street, Leesburg, VA

Luther Memorial Church, Washington, DC

Main St, Waterford VA

Main Street, Annapolis, MD

March on Washington, August 28, 1963

Marian Anderson, Lincoln Memorial, April 9, 1939

Market Street, Leesburg, VA

Mary Surratt House, Washington, DC: The boardinghouse where the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln was planned

Newsie, Willard Hotel, Washington, DC

Newsies, US Capitol

North Capitol and H, Washington, DC

Office Building, King Street, Leesburg, VA

Old Stone Bridge, Manassas, VA

Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC

Smithsonian Castle, Washington, DC

Stone House, Manassas National Battlefield

Summertime at Tidal Basin, Washington, DC

Thomas Circle, Washington, DC

US Capitol Under Construction, Washington, DC

Willard Hotel, Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC

William and Caroline Streets, Fredericksburg, VA

Women Demonstrating for Right to Vote, White House

All composite images by Jason E. Powell

This capsule was curated by Stephen A. O’Connor

10 comments to Ghosts of Washington

  • John

    When you see pictures like this it makes you realise how transitory people are in the scheme of things.

  • ChuckPiot

    I would love to know how they did this! Was it a blank piece of paper they held up and then photoshopped the historical image in?

  • Estelle

    I would like to know too. I have tried similar for some old photos of Liverpool I have, but found it impossible to get the photo and the background in focus simultaneously!

  • Love

    it’s an old photograph blown up, then photographed superimposing the actual site.

  • qka

    Just a comment about the sight redesign - having the text in such a light shade of gray on a white background makes it very hard to read. It seems that the text under each picture is an even lighter shade.Please consider making the text darker.

    Thank you. And thank you for bringing such interesting material to your site.

  • Dezi Beck

    These are some of the best “Ghost” pictures I’ve seen. Nice job!

    I’ve seen several of the originals before - it’s wonderful to see what you’ve done.

  • Chris

    Thanks, QKA, we’ll sort that

  • David Riska

    Very nice. As a native Washingtonian it is always cool to see some of these before and after shots.

  • Cincinnati

    I believe the appropriate phrase ten years ago was “TRE COOL!” I love the black and whites and how you fit them in the shot so perfectly. I appreciate the time you spent acquiring those vintage black and white photos. If you would like to do “Part 2: The Ghost of Cincinnati” I would put you up:)
    Thanks for these pics; an awesome work of art.

  • Gr

    Without people in the old photographs… it’s much less interesting.

    People make these photographs alive… or… haunted… without: -yawn-

Leave a Reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>