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Two views of Washington, D.C., in its 60th year are featured here on the front page of Harper’s Weekly. Published just months before the outbreak of the Civil War, these images illustrate a story about the vast development the city had undergone since its initial occupation in 1800. Though it was once “a dreary place,” it had since improved, with the Capitol building—“the noblest and most commodious public edifice in the world”—as its visual and geographic center.
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “The City of Washington and the Capitol,” https://history.house.gov/Collection/Listing/2004/2004-085-006/ (January 21, 2021)
Office of the Historian
Office of Art and Archives
Attic, Thomas Jefferson Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 226-1300
