Jefferson D. Hamburg

Very light on narrative text; mostly a photo book. Organized into chapters, but a significant number of pages in each chapter has little if anything to do with the chapter topic. A number of the photos are mislabelled (e.g., the fountain "in front" of the National Gallery of Art is, as even a quick check on Mapquest will tell you, behind the museum [as is the triangular FTC building whose rounded apex is clearly visible in the photo behind said fountain]; the Taft Bridge doesn't lead into any Georgetown that I've ever heard of; the romanesque Old Post Office does not have any concave, colonnaded sides: that's the EPA's building across the street...). On the other hand, and the reason I bought it, it has several maps and panoramas produced between 1790 and 1900, which illustrate the changes nicely (they are small [the book is only 6" h x 8" w], though, so many details aren't much bigger than the color dots they're printed with: so magnification isn't of much help, and much text on maps is therefore illegible. But at least they are there). Unless you want to spend $40 - $60 for Passonneau's Washington Through Two Centuries, this is your best bet.… (altro)