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Monumental architecture
Period photographs of named structures. Documented identification first. Present status is a later fact recorded beside the plate — surviving, altered, burned, demolished, reconstructed, replaced — not a verdict the image is asked to prove.
1857–58·Giza
The Pyramids of El-Geezeh, from the south-west
Francis Frith
Street photograph · Surviving
The Giza plateau photographed from the desert: two large pyramids, a smaller one, sand, a figure for scale. A camera on the ground in 1857–58. Present status: surviving. Do not treat the photograph as an engraving of Egypt, and do not treat Frith’s expedition date as the construction date.
Open plate
c. 1861·Washington
United States Capitol — the Walter dome rising
Unidentified photographer. Period print of the dome under construction.
Street photograph · Surviving
The Capitol with Walter’s iron dome unfinished: scaffolding, a crane, the first columns of the new drum. A camera on a construction site in wartime Washington. Present status is surviving. Do not read the later completed dome back onto this exposure.
Open plate
1860s·Angkor
Angkor Wat
Period photograph. Early camera records of the site include Émile Gsell (1866) and John Thomson. The photographer of this specific scan is not fixed on the file.
Street photograph · Surviving
The main temple photographed from the ground: towers, galleries, vegetation on the stone. A camera at Angkor in the 1860s, among the first generation of photographs of the site. Present status: surviving. Do not treat the plate as a drawing, and do not invent a photographer where the file does not name one.
Open plate
c. 1860s·London
Crystal Palace, Sydenham
Period stereograph of the palace after its 1854 re-erection at Sydenham.
Street photograph · Burned
Paxton’s iron-and-glass palace photographed in the park at Sydenham, fountains in the foreground, the long glazed nave beyond. A camera record of a structure that would burn in 1936. This is not the 1851 Hyde Park original in situ. Record the Sydenham building as photographed, then the fire as a later documented event.
Open plate
c. 1870·Vienna
St Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna
Michael Frankenstein, photographer.
Elevated photograph · Surviving
The Stephansdom photographed with the roofs and streets around it. This is not a bird’s-eye of all Vienna. It is a camera record of the cathedral and the city’s fabric at that spot, about 1870.
Open plate
1870·Vienna
Staatsbahnhof under construction, 13 March 1870
Hermann Voigtländer
Street photograph · Replaced
The departure hall of the Staatsbahnhof (later Ostbahnhof) as a building site, dated 13 March 1870. Scaffolding, winter ground, a camera on a construction job. Old World photography of making, not a city overview.
Open plate
c. 1860s·Rome
Panorama from the dome of St Peter’s
Unidentified photographer. Albumen print from collodion negative.
Elevated photograph · Surviving
Rome photographed from the cupola of St Peter’s: the basilica fabric in the foreground, the city spread beyond. An elevated photograph from a known high point, not a balloon plate and not a drawn bird’s-eye. The camera is on the dome.
Open plate
c. 1880–1900·Constantinople
Hagia Sophia from the south
Period photograph. Abdullah Frères and others issued exterior views of Ayasofya in these decades. Photographer of this specific scan is not fixed on the file.
Street photograph · Altered
Hagia Sophia photographed from the south: the dome, half-domes, Ottoman minarets, a street of timber houses. A camera in late-nineteenth-century Constantinople. This is the building in Istanbul, not a Gothic church misfiled under the same name. Present status: altered.
Open plate
c. 1880s·Melbourne
Royal Exhibition Building
Period photograph of the 1880 Exhibition Building. Exact photographer and year of this scan are not fixed on the file.
Street photograph · Surviving
The Exhibition Building photographed from the gardens: the dome, the long nave, paths, figures. World’s-fair architecture that was kept. A camera on the ground in Melbourne. Present status: surviving. Do not collapse this façade plate with the view taken from the dome.
Open plate
c. 1880–1900·Paris
Palais Garnier
Period photograph of the completed opera. Photographer and exact year are not fixed on this scan.
Street photograph · Surviving
The principal façade photographed from the square: columns, sculpture, the gilded groups on the attic, a street of carriages. A camera on a finished monumental opera. Present status: surviving. Set it beside the Avenue de l’Opéra plate if you want the building tested against the street that was cut to face it.
Open plate
c. 1890·Buenos Aires
Casa Rosada
Unidentified photographer. Period photograph of the Casa de Gobierno.
Street photograph · Surviving
The Casa de Gobierno photographed from the plaza: portico, balconies, trees, a monumental civic pile in Buenos Aires. A camera in South America, late nineteenth century. Present status: surviving. Do not treat a European palace as a substitute for this plate.
Open plate
1902·New York
Flatiron Building, Fifth Avenue and Broadway
Detroit Photographic Co.
Street photograph · Surviving
The completed Flatiron photographed from the street: the prow at Twenty-third, carriages, a clock, the new tower filling the view. A camera at ground level, 1902. Not the 1873 harbor lithograph. Early steel-frame construction as a physical object, not as a skyline argument.
Open plate
c. 1904·Mexico City
Metropolitan Cathedral, Mexico City
Detroit Publishing Company.
Street photograph · Surviving
The cathedral’s west front photographed from the square: towers, portal, a tram in the street, a city using the building. Period photograph, not an engraving. Present status: surviving. Where nothing violent happened to the fabric in the years this archive covers, the database keeps that fact.
Open plate
c. 1904·Philadelphia
City Hall, Philadelphia
Detroit Publishing Company.
Street photograph · Surviving
City Hall photographed from the street: the tower, William Penn at the top, a dense masonry civic building occupying the crossing of Broad and Market. A camera record of a finished structure. Set it beside the 1876 bird’s-eye of Philadelphia if you want the print tested against a later lens.
Open plate
c. 1903·Agra
The Taj Mahal from the garden
Period stereograph (Underwood-type tourist issue).
Street photograph · Surviving
The mausoleum photographed from the garden, water in the near field, the dome and minarets beyond, figures on the path. A camera on the ground at Agra. Present status: surviving. Architect is traditional attribution, not a fact this photograph proves.
Open plate
c. 1900·Moscow
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
Period photograph of the cathedral standing. Photographer of this scan is not fixed on the file.
Street photograph · Reconstructed
The original cathedral photographed in snow: the great dome, the bronze domelets, a crowd, a monumental masonry church on the Moskva. A camera in Moscow around 1900. The building in this exposure would be dynamited in 1931. Do not read the 1990s reconstruction back onto this plate.
Open plate
c. 1905·Melbourne
Melbourne from the dome of the Exhibition Building
Period stereograph. Camera on the 1880 Exhibition Building.
Elevated photograph · Surviving
Melbourne photographed from the dome of the 1880 Exhibition Building: parks, a grid, low masonry, a few taller piles. An elevated photograph from a known high point. The camera stands on world’s-fair architecture that was kept. Do not treat the view as a lithograph of the city.
Open plate
c. 1909·New York
Singer Tower from the North River
Period stereograph from a ferry in the Hudson.
Elevated photograph · Demolished
Lower Manhattan from the water: the Singer Tower the tall needle among office blocks, ferries, the working river. Photographed while the tower still stood. It would be taken down in 1967–68. Do not read the empty lot at 149 Broadway back onto this plate.
Open plate
1912·New York
Woolworth Building — ironwork, 4 April 1912
Unidentified photographer. Dated on the negative 4 April 1912.
Street photograph · Surviving
The Woolworth frame going up: steel, timber staging, neighboring masonry, a street of carts. Dated 4 April 1912. A camera on a building site. The finished tower is a later plate. Do not collapse construction and completion into one image.
Open plate
c. 1913·New York
Woolworth Building
Period stereograph. Issued as the tower newly completed.
Street photograph · Surviving
The completed Woolworth tower photographed from the street: Gothic cladding on a steel frame, the sidewalk, neighboring piles. A camera at the foot of a finished high-rise. Set it beside the 1873 harbor lithograph and beside the April 1912 ironwork plate. Three different kinds of record.
Open plate