Research branch · camera first

Photographic Breadcrumbs

Surviving photographs. Not proof of a theory. Look at the picture, read what the archive says it is, and compare it with the maps.

The path is a baseline, then documented changes of terrain and street grade, then catastrophic destruction. Reconstruction is not in this first collection. The archival files are not cropped or redrawn.

Some chairs also carry Modern Eyes: a labeled visualization made from that photograph, so the scene is easier to look at. It stays on the same chair. It is not another source, and it is not a separate gallery. The original remains the evidence.

Camera first

World’s Fairs

Official plates and archive links. Not a verdict.

  1. 12
    Photograph not filed

    Not filed

    Old street level

    Seattle

    The photograph sought is one that shows a former ground floor against a later, higher sidewalk.

  2. 15

    1857

    Lake Street

    Chicago · print, not a photograph

    A row of masonry buildings. The sidewalk is up. The roadway is below it. Stairs connect the two levels.

  3. 16
    Photograph not filed

    1860s

    Raised streets

    Sacramento

    The photograph sought is the raised business streets of the 1860s: new grade, and the older level at the buildings.

  4. 17

    About 1904–1910

    Houses up, fill coming in

    Galveston, Texas · postcard

    Houses stand on piers. Fill is being pumped in around them.

These 20 are a starting collection, not a numerical limit. Another photograph is another chair.