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.
- 09
Probably 1890
From Denny Hill
Seattle
The camera is on the hill. The city spreads below: houses, a church, a street, and open ground at the edge of town.
- 10
Probably 1908–1915
The remains of Denny Hill
Seattle
Two cut remnants of the hill, a house between them, and a jet of water from a hydraulic giant.
- 11
1906
Washington Hotel on the cut
Seattle
The hotel and nearby houses sit high on the remaining earth. The street below has been cut down.
- 13
Probably 1890, and 1906
Denny Hill, before and during
Seattle
One picture is made from the hill, looking over the city. The other is the hill being cut, with the hotel left above the street.
These 20 are a starting collection, not a numerical limit. Another photograph is another chair.