Selected Manuscript Collections
The DC History History Center holds a number of collections related to local businesses - below is a selected list. Use our online catalog to find additional collections.
Books, Directories and other printed materials
Directories, indexes and other publications that compile information. Many of these resources address early Washington D.C. businesses and notable people.
Selected Manuscript Collections
The DC History History Center holds a number of collections related to local religious institutions - below is a selected list. Use our online catalog to find additional collections.
Books, Directories and other printed materials
City Directories (1822-1973)
The DC History Center holds Boyd’s City Directories for 1822, 1827, 1834, 1843, 1846, 1850, 1853, 1855, 1858, 1860-1943, 1948, 1954, 1956, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1970, and 1973. Directories list residents alphabetically, and include occupation, place of employment, home address, race (up to 1870), and names of spouses (1928 onwards).
From 1914-1973, directories include a separate street address index. Patrons may search for their homes by address to discover its historic occupant. Volumes also contained a business directory, organized by business category.
Data was collected via door-to-door canvas in December of the previous year. If your home was built and occupied within a calendar year, the residents may not appear in the directory at that address until the following year.
Property Tax Assessment Directories
The DC History Center holds select 20th century tax assessment directories, primarily 1917-1940 and 1981-1999 available by appointment. An inventory can be provided in advance.
Selected Manuscript Collections
The DC History History Center holds a number of collections related to local social clubs and associations - below is a selected list. Use our online catalog to find additional collections.
Selected Manuscript Collections
Selected Manuscript Collections
The DC History History Center holds a number of family history collections - below is a selected list. Use our online catalog to find additional collections.
Selected Manuscript Collections
The DC History History Center holds a number of collections related to local funeral homes and cemeteries - below is a selected list. Use our online catalog to find additional collections.
Oral histories are cataloged as manuscript collections, regardless of the format the oral histories are made available. Each oral history receives an MS number, which describes the oral history project at a collection level, and an OHT number, which is the identifier for a specific interview. This allows for the context of the oral histories to be described while individual narrators and their stories are also called out in the catalog.
In 2021, GIS specialist Brian Kraft, with support from Humanities DC through a grant from the DC Oral History Collaborative, released a map identifying significant DC locations referenced in 461 of the surveyed oral histories. The map thus far only reflects oral histories that have either an online transcript and/or an audio recording available online. (DC History Center collections will hopefully be added as they come online). Click on an icon to connect to the oral history related to that location. Use the black button on the right side of the map to open the map in a new tab. Zoom and pan around the map. Click a point to get a pop-up, then click the link to the online oral history. The oral history might be a transcript, video, or audio recording.
Selected Manuscript Collections
The DC History History Center holds a number of photograph collections related to family and places of interest in Washington DC - below is a selected list. Use our online catalog to find additional collections.
While yearbooks can be found sprinkled through manuscript collections, there is also a dedicated General Yearbook Collection. This is an artificial collection of high school, college, and university yearbooks that have been donated to the DC History Center over the years. Yearbooks are cataloged in the Archives catalog. Schools are assigned an object ID (YB ####), with the specific publication title and holdings of individual volumes identified in each school's catalog record. A quick way to search in the online catalog is to type "YB and [part of school name]".
You can also use the Select All (Control/Command A) then the Find function (Control/Command F) to search this page for a specific school and click on the relevant link to see specific holdings.
Yearbooks that have been digitized can be accessed through the following platforms.