Greetings from Washington!

This souvineer postcard folder contains 22 images of Washington D.C. landmarks. Many are instantly recognizable, others not so familiar. The back of the folder contains a brief caption to accompany each of the images. Often this caption is more interesting than the picture itself, so we will look at both.

As you can see, this folder was mailed from Washington to Philadelphia in February of 1917– so these images of the landmarks, along with their captions, give us a time capsule view of our nation's capitol as it was 90 years or so ago.

When you first browse through this collection of governmental structures and landmarks, the branch of government conspicuously missing is the Judiciary: there is no picture of the Supreme Court!

Not to worry, however. It turns out that the Supreme Court did not have its own building until 1935, 146 years after its formation (and 18 years after this postcard folder was mailed).

With that mystery solved, let's have a look at Washington D.C., circa 1917.