The Rabbit Hole

Research branch · image type first

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Two related datasets, not one pile. Bird’s-eye lithographs stay drawings. Old World photography stays photography. Label the image type before anything else — so an 1870 American print is never compared as if it were a lens.

Then the same method on the built world: what was there, what happened, what came afterward. Present status is recorded beside the plate. Chronology talks. The image is not asked to prove a thesis.

Camera first

World’s Fairs

Official plates and archive links. Not a verdict.

Same screen, labeled types

Compare city overviews: 1870 ± 10 years

Chicago, St. Louis, New York, Paris, London, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, St. Petersburg. Original images. Dates. Source institutions. Image type on every plate.

Open the 1870 window

The built world

What was there. What happened. What came afterward.

Bird’s-eyes as establishing shots. Photographs of named structures. Fires, earthquakes, demolition, and steel-frame construction as dated events. Gaps stay gaps.

Open the chronologies

Collections

04 / 08

Same city, two kinds

Once there are enough plates, the test is simple: bird’s-eye artwork against a photograph of the same city from roughly the same year. How faithfully did the print represent what was physically there? Do not assume. Set them beside each other.

Chicago, 1871–72

A lithograph of the city as it was before the fire, beside a photograph of the burnt district. Do not treat them as the same kind of evidence.

Set these plates beside each other
The City of Chicago as it was before the great conflagration, 1872. W. Flint. Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph.

1872·Chicago

The City of Chicago as it was before the great conflagration

W. Flint

Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph

What this plate shows

A lithographic bird’s-eye of Chicago drawn as it stood before 8–10 October 1871, issued the following year. River, rail, grain elevators, a dense grid to the lake. An imagined high viewpoint of a city already gone when the print was sold. Not a photograph.

Image type
Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph
Source
Library of Congress; Wikimedia scan of the 1872 lithograph.
License
Public domain.
Chicago after the fire, 1871. Attributed to George N. Barnard. Photographic panorama.

1871·Chicago

Chicago after the fire

Attributed to George N. Barnard

Photographic panorama

What this plate shows

A wide photographic plate of the burnt district: chimneys, rubble, a horizon of ruin. This is a camera record after 8–10 October 1871. Set it beside Davis’s or Flint’s drawn ‘before’ views. One is an illustration of what was imagined as standing. This is what the lens found after.

Image type
Photographic panorama
Source
Google Art Project / Wikimedia; panoramic photograph of the burnt district.
License
Public domain.

London, c. 1865

A drawn panorama from the south bank beside a photograph from the roofs. Same city, two kinds.

Set these plates beside each other
London from the south side of the Thames, c. 1865. Printed panorama (Leventhal Map Center / Wikimedia scan).. Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph.

c. 1865·London

London from the south side of the Thames

Printed panorama (Leventhal Map Center / Wikimedia scan).

Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph

What this plate shows

A drawn strip of London seen from the south bank: river, bridges, dome, a continuous skyline. An illustration of the whole, not a single exposure. Set it beside the rooftop photograph before deciding they show the same city the same way.

Image type
Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph
Source
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center collection, circulated via Wikimedia Commons.
License
Public domain.
On the rooftops of London, c. 1865. Unknown photographer. National Library of Ireland, STP_0424.. Elevated photograph.

c. 1865·London

On the rooftops of London

Unknown photographer. National Library of Ireland, STP_0424.

Elevated photograph

What this plate shows

A camera on London roofs. Chimney pots in the near field. St Paul’s dome in the distance. Smoke, brick, and a real horizon. This is an elevated photograph, not a bird’s-eye lithograph. The city is whatever the lens could hold from that roof, that day.

Image type
Elevated photograph
Source
National Library of Ireland on The Commons; Wikimedia scan. Pre-1869 rooftop view, likely c. 1865.
License
No known copyright restrictions (Flickr Commons / NLI).

Paris, 1865–68

Nadar’s balloon plate of the Étoile beside Marville’s street record of a boulevard being cut. Overview is not demolition. Both are photographs.

Set these plates beside each other
Aerial view of Paris — Place de l’Étoile, 1868. Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon), from Henri Giffard’s tethered balloon.. True aerial photograph.

1868·Paris

Aerial view of Paris — Place de l’Étoile

Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon), from Henri Giffard’s tethered balloon.

True aerial photograph

What this plate shows

A camera in a balloon. The Arc de Triomphe sits in the star of new avenues Haussmann cut from the Étoile. Rooftops and roadbeds are seen from above, not imagined from above. BnF preserves a plate of eight views Nadar took from this tethered balloon in 1868. This is a true aerial photograph — the first surviving generation of Paris from the air.

Image type
True aerial photograph
Source
Brown University Library; Wikimedia Commons file of the 1868 balloon exposure.
License
Public domain (Nadar died 1910; published nineteenth century).
Avenue de l’Opéra — demolition, c. 1877. Charles Marville. Street photograph.

c. 1877·Paris

Avenue de l’Opéra — demolition

Charles Marville

Street photograph

What this plate shows

The cut for the Avenue de l’Opéra: a street of houses opened, timber shores, rubble, a camera standing in the demolition. Marville recorded what Haussmann’s boulevards destroyed. Street photography of unmaking. Not an overview of Paris.

Image type
Street photograph
Source
J. Paul Getty Museum / Brown University Library; Wikimedia scan.
License
Public domain.

All plates

Year order. Type is the first column after the date.

  1. printed 1844OxfordHigh Street, OxfordStreet photograph
  2. 1858CairoStreet view in CairoStreet photograph
  3. 1857–58GizaThe Pyramids of El-Geezeh, from the south-westStreet photograph
  4. 1858JerusalemJerusalem from the Mount of OlivesElevated photograph
  5. c. 1860BostonWashington Street, BostonStreet photograph
  6. 1860PragueOld Bridge over the MoldauElevated photograph
  7. 1861St. PetersburgPanorama of Saint PetersburgBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  8. c. 1861WashingtonUnited States Capitol — the Walter dome risingStreet photograph
  9. c. 1860sLondonCrystal Palace, SydenhamStreet photograph
  10. 1863YokohamaYokohama from the hillPhotographic panorama
  11. 1864Annapolis, MarylandBird’s eye view of the city of Annapolis, Md.Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  12. ca. 1850–1880EdinburghPrinces Street and the Scott MonumentStreet photograph
  13. c. 1865LondonOn the rooftops of LondonElevated photograph
  14. c. 1865LondonLondon from the south side of the ThamesBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  15. c. 1865ParisPlace DauphineStreet photograph
  16. between 1860 and 1870ParisRue de Rivoli and the Hôtel du LouvreElevated photograph
  17. c. 1860sRomePanorama from the dome of St Peter’sElevated photograph
  18. 1860sAngkorAngkor WatStreet photograph
  19. 1861–1873San FranciscoLick House, Montgomery Street frontStreet photograph
  20. late 1860sBombayShaik Memon Street, BombayStreet photograph
  21. 1868Omaha, NebraskaBird’s eye view of the city of Omaha, NebraskaBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  22. 1868ParisAerial view of Paris — Place de l’ÉtoileTrue aerial photograph
  23. 1869Kansas City, MissouriBird’s eye view of Kansas City, Missouri. Jan’y. 1869Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  24. 1868–1870PekingCentral Street, Chinese City, PekingElevated photograph
  25. 1870BostonView of Boston, July 4th 1870Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  26. ca. 1870CalcuttaTown Hall, CalcuttaStreet photograph
  27. 1870DamascusThe street called StraightStreet photograph
  28. 1870Salt Lake City, UtahBird’s eye view of Salt Lake City, Utah TerritoryBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  29. c. 1870ViennaSt Stephen’s Cathedral, ViennaElevated photograph
  30. 1870ViennaStaatsbahnhof under construction, 13 March 1870Street photograph
  31. 1871Atlanta, GeorgiaBirds eye view of the city of Atlanta, the capitol of GeorgiaBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  32. 1871BerlinBerlin from a bird’s-eyeBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  33. 1871ChicagoBird’s-eye view of Chicago as it was before the great fireBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  34. 1871ChicagoChicago after the firePhotographic panorama
  35. 1872ChicagoThe City of Chicago as it was before the great conflagrationBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  36. 1872Milwaukee, WisconsinMilwaukee, Wis.Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  37. 1873New YorkNew York — Battery Park and the East RiverBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  38. 1870–77ViennaToward the center of Vienna from MariahilfStreet photograph
  39. 1874DenverDenver, Colorado, 1874Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  40. 1874St. LouisThe City of St. LouisBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  41. c. 1870sLondonLondon Bridge from the Southwark sideStreet photograph
  42. c. 1875ShanghaiThe Bund, ShanghaiElevated photograph
  43. 1876Louisville, KentuckyBird’s eye view of Louisville, KentuckyBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  44. 1876PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, 1876 — chromatic viewBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  45. c. 1877ParisAvenue de l’Opéra — demolitionStreet photograph
  46. c. 1878ParisAvenue de l’Opéra, toward Palais GarnierStreet photograph
  47. 1878San FranciscoThe City of San Francisco, from the bay looking south-westBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  48. 1878Seattle, WashingtonBird’s eye view of the city of Seattle, Puget Sound, Washington TerritoryBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  49. 1879Leadville, ColoradoBird’s eye view of Leadville, Lake County, Colo.Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  50. 1879MinneapolisPanoramic view of the city of MinneapolisBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  51. ca. 1880CologneCologne Cathedral, south side, towers scaffoldedStreet photograph
  52. 1883DuluthView of Duluth, Minn.Bird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  53. c. 1880–1900ConstantinopleHagia Sophia from the southStreet photograph
  54. c. 1880sMelbourneRoyal Exhibition BuildingStreet photograph
  55. 1888–1900MelbourneCollins Street, Grosvenor ChambersStreet photograph
  56. 1886–1892BerlinUnter den Linden, from west to eastStreet photograph
  57. 1889ParisParis from a balloon — Exposition UniverselleTrue aerial photograph
  58. ca. 1880–1900AlgiersAlgiers from the CasbahElevated photograph
  59. c. 1890Buenos AiresCasa RosadaStreet photograph
  60. c. 1880–1900ParisPalais GarnierStreet photograph
  61. ca. 1885–1895Rio de JaneiroCentral Rio from Morro do CasteloElevated photograph
  62. 1893ChicagoState Street, ChicagoStreet photograph
  63. 1893St. PaulSt. Paul, looking west from Dayton’s BluffBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  64. ca. 1890–1900MoscowRed SquareStreet photograph
  65. 1902New YorkFlatiron Building, Fifth Avenue and BroadwayStreet photograph
  66. 1902Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh, PennsylvaniaBird's-eye illustration / lithograph
  67. c. 1903AgraThe Taj Mahal from the gardenStreet photograph
  68. c. 1900MoscowCathedral of Christ the SaviourStreet photograph
  69. c. 1904Mexico CityMetropolitan Cathedral, Mexico CityStreet photograph
  70. c. 1904PhiladelphiaCity Hall, PhiladelphiaStreet photograph
  71. c. 1905MelbourneMelbourne from the dome of the Exhibition BuildingElevated photograph
  72. 1906San FranciscoSan Francisco in ruins from a captive airshipTrue aerial photograph
  73. c. 1909New YorkSinger Tower from the North RiverElevated photograph
  74. 1912New YorkWoolworth Building — ironwork, 4 April 1912Street photograph
  75. c. 1913New YorkWoolworth BuildingStreet photograph
  76. c. 1913New YorkLooking down from the Woolworth towerElevated photograph