All Titles

Washington, DC, Jazz focuses, primarily, on the history of straight-ahead jazz, using oral histories, materials from the William P. Gottlieb Collection at the Library of Congress, the Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives at the University of the District of Columbia, and Smithsonian Jazz.

Home to Black Broadway and the Howard Theatre in the Greater U Street area, Washington, DC, has long been associated with American jazz. Duke Ellington and Billy Eckstine launched their careers there in the early 20th century. Decades later, Shirley Horn and Buck Hill would follow their leads, and DC's jazz millennials include graduates of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. For years, Bohemian Caverns and One Step Down were among the clubs serving as gathering places for producers and consumers of jazz, even as Rusty Hassan and other programmers used radio to promote the music. This volume also features the work of photographers Nathaniel Rhodes, Michael Wilderman, and Lawrence A. Randall.

Historic Congressional Cemetery dates from the days when Washington, DC, was a burgeoning city on the edge of a malarial swamp.

The stones--sandstone tablets with colonial calligraphy, ornate Victorian statues, 20th-century art nouveau carvings, and contemporary markers in shapes as strange as picnic tables and upended cubes--are a time line of the city. The most distinctive stones are 171 cenotaphs; large cubes designed by Capitol architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe from the same sandstone used in the Capitol. They are found nowhere else. The men and women buried under those stones led lives of beauty, courage, struggle, cunning, leadership, and humor--in short, the stories of American history.

Discover the lost port city from the days of the Revolution and the terror of the War of 1812 to the founding of Georgetown University and the town's incorporation in the District of Columbia.

View the legacy of the long-standing African-American neighborhood that formed the close-knit community today.

Located in the far northeastern edge of the city, Deanwood is one of Washington, D.C.'s oldest, consistently African American neighborhoods. Rooted in slave-based agriculture on white-owned land, the community began its transition from rural to urban development with the 1871 arrival of a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad along its western boundary. This period after the Civil War offered blacks the opportunity to become landowners. Since this time, many notable Washingtonians of various ethnicities have been residents and frequent visitors to the area. In the early 1920s, it was home to Suburban Gardens, the only permanent amusement park ever to be housed within the city limits. Many of Deanwood's families have lived in the community for generations, which makes it stable and close-knit.

Built as a gated, all-white community, in the 20th century LeDroit Park became the premier neighborhood of Washington, DC's Black elite.

LeDroit Park's famed arch offers entry into a tree-lined neighborhood with unique architecture and a captivating history. Developed in 1873 by a Howard University trustee who refused to sell lots to Black Washingtonians, the neighborhood was designed to be both town and country, one of DC's earliest suburbs. Not long after the fences of this gated community were torn down, the demographics changed as members of the Black elite of Washington moved there. During the 20th century it was home to educators and activists, military men and artists, doctors and scientists - both white and Black, men and women.

Local historian and guide Canden Schwantes leads you through this neighborhood, small in size but large in history, to discover the stories of the people who called LeDroit Park home.

Read along with local writer and guide Tim Krepp as he takes on the best-known haunted tales while exploring the lesser-known specters of Capitol Hill.

From the Demon Cat that stalks the Washington crypt to the restless spirit of John Quincy Adams in Statuary Hall, it is no wonder that in 1898 the Philadelphia Press declared the Capital to be the most thoroughly haunted building in the world. Yet there are as many ghosts in the neighborhood as there are beneath the dome. From the weeping lady of The Maples to Commodore Tingey, who still stands watch in the Navy Yard, to the dozens of famous ghosts hosted by Congressional Cemetery, many former residents seem bound to their old home. Join Krepp as he explores the most historic and hair-raising haunts of the Hill.

Get off the National Mall and enjoy nine walking and driving tours of Washington, D. C. 's historic neighborhoods. A must-have for visitors and residents alike.

Discover the hidden history of the nation's capital with tales of political intrigue, scandal, romance and tragedy. Experience the overlooked architectural and cultural treasures in such neighborhoods as Georgetown, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan and Mount Vernon Square.

Owner of A Tour de Force, Jeanne Fogle, leads her readers through the hidden sites and history of Washington, D. C. 's neighborhoods. Charming sketches by Edward Fogle and vintage photographs accompany each tour, casting a new light on the city. Visitors and local alike will be surprised and delighted by the discoveries that can be made beyond the monuments.

The images in this collection capture the diverse history of Georgetown.

Georgetown, a thriving neighborhood in the nation's capital, was established in 1751 as an independent city. As the land to its east was being developed into Washington, DC, the once sleepy river town grew and evolved. George Washington's adopted descendants lived down the street from where Kennedy lived before Camelot; Julia Child walked past the home of Robert Todd Lincoln; and a successful community of free black Americans was built around the corner from what had previously been a slave market. Georgetown depicts the history of a community whose roots span far beyond the prestigious university and upper-class neighborhood for which it is known. The images capture mansions and slums, thriving businesses and crumbling facades, an industrial revolution, and the closing of the C&O Canal.

Georgetown University is a new book by alumni Paul ONeill (C'86) and Bennie Smith (C'86).The book includes 200 images from Georgetown University's archives along with captions that tell the story of the university's first 200 years.

Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in America, was founded in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll, SJ, as an academy for boys that was open to “Students of Every Religious Profession” and “every Class of Citizens.” Carroll established the school on a hilltop overlooking the Potomac River, “delightfully situated” as Charles Dickens would observe several decades later.Georgetown welcomed its first student, William Gaston, in 1791 and was chartered by Congress in 1815, but by the time of the Civil War, when Federal troops occupied the campus, the school was on the brink of collapse.It was not until the presidency of Patrick F.Healy, SJ, in 1873 that Georgetown would recover and be set on a course to become a university, linking Georgetown College with professional schools of medicine and law.The early 20th century was marked by the founding of the schools of dentistry, nursing, foreign service, languages and linguistics, and business.Now among the top universities in America, Georgetown is continuously reinvigorated by teaching and scholarship dedicated to serving the nation and the world.

Washington has a rural history of agrarian landscapes and country estates. John Adlum, the Father of American Viticulture, experimented with American grape cultivation at The Vineyard, just north of today's Cleveland Park.

Slave laborers rolled hogsheads - wooden casks filled with tobacco - down present-day Wisconsin Avenue from farms to the port at Georgetown. The growing merchant class built suburban villas on the edges of the District and became the city's first commuters. In 1791, the area was selected as the capital of a new nation, and change from rural to urban was both dramatic and progressive. Author Kim Prothro Williams reveals the rural remnants of Washington, D.C.'s past.

In Dupont Circle, author Paul K. Williams documents the growth and development of the historic Dupont Circle neighborhood with over 200 vintage images.

From the vast estates of the mid-1800s to the row houses built at the end of the 19th century, from Charles Lindbergh's balcony address at the Patterson House to the various political rallies staged in the urban neighborhood, Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle has for many years been at the center of a rich history. Boasting a fascinating heritage of architectural, cultural, and political activity and diversity, the Dupont Circle neighborhood has played a part in the great story of the capital city and has witnessed many of the people and events that have challenged our national community. Following the area's use as a Civil War encampment, Dupont Circle slowly began to develop a more urban character. At the neighborhood's social zenith in the early 1900s, gracious mansions surrounding the circle hosted lavish parties attended by diplomats, presidents, and wealthy socialites. The photographs in this informative visual history capture the elegant homes that were later replaced by office buildings and the fashionable era that was soon to fade. Rare World War II images of former mansions used as rooming houses bring readersinto the 20th century, along with the early 1960s photographs of gay activists who gathered at the circle and began the modern restoration of the neighborhood.