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.
- 12Photograph not filed
Not filed
Old street level
Seattle
The photograph sought is one that shows a former ground floor against a later, higher sidewalk.
- 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.
- 16Photograph 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.
- 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.