LibGuides: Teach the District: Comparing 1940s and 1950s street scenes with today's city

Teachable Moment: Block-busting in Mid-Century DC

““Blockbusting” and Racial Turnover in Mid-Century D.C." by Sarah Jane Shoenfeld
Publication Date: 2018

Washington History
Vol. 30, No. 2 (Fall 2018), pp. 50-54

Wouldn't it be fun to see a mid-century photo of a DC street scene - and be able to compare it to what students can see today? Through the John P. Wymer photograph collection and WymersDC.com, you can!

Comparing 1940s and 1950s street scenes with today's city

Wymer's DC
Wymer's DC is an interactive map which places the thousands of historic images of John P. Wymer onto Google Street View. Use this tool to immerse yourself in 1950s Washington, D.C. and picture the city as you have never seen it before. Wymer's DC was created as a way to view the Wymer Photograph Collection in a geospatial context and visually connect with the rich history of the nation's capital.

John P. Wymer photograph collection (SP 0052)
The collection-level identifier is SP 0052. Individual images are cataloged beginning with WY followed by a 4-digit number. Comprises about 4000 images of Washington taken by John P. Wymer, 1948-1952. Wymer divided the District into 57 areas and photographed sample blocks and important buildings. Collection comprises original hand-cut negatives; notebooks kept by photographer; scrapbooks with each page containing prints and typed captions. The photograph prints are captioned with location and date.
Wymer's map of DC
Map of D.C. divided into 57 areas, as designated by John P. Wymer. Wymer systematically photographed a selection of streets within each area.