Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Most were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.
Update Feb 2010: The muse of his his account no longer resides in the immediate vicinity of Stanton Square, Washington D.C. Nonetheless, for historical reasons within this blog, I am currently continuing with this account-name.
Stanton Square (aka Stanton Park) is a public space on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Originally laid out as part of L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the Federal City, the area was mostly a muddy field until after the Civil War. Located a few blocks NE of the Capitol, the neighborhood is now part of the Capitol Hill Historical District and home to a vibrant mixed-use community of residential, commericial, office, and school buildings. An equestrian statue of Revolutionary War major general Nathanael Greene marks the focal point of the square.
Stanton Square loves Shorpy but feels slightly resentful that, as of yet, the Library of Congress archives have yielded limited historical photos of the immediate area. (Stanton Square has a fuzzy memory and can't remember for herself). As consolation for this lost sense of place, Stanton Square has been working on a mash-up of local Shorpy photos and Google Maps.
Update: The former, single Google Mash-up map has become too slow owing the increased number of locations. The map is now broken up into three separate maps. The map most commonly updated is of Architecture (below). The other two maps are Transportation and Everything Else.
Update II: Due to lack of traffic and limits on time, the Google map of Shorpy photographs in Washington, D.C. is no longer being updated. Hopefully, through the combination of Google tools and growing interest, this will serve as a basis for further development sometime in the future.