A fine book indeed if you're interested in the history of the city's layout. Be sure to have a magnifying glass handy for minute inspection of the maps!

Images of the D. of C. area from the mid-18th c. through the early 20th c. As far as I can make out, it is the catalogue for a 2003 or 2004 exhibition at the late City Museum of Washington. As such it is light on textual discussion of the actual city and its changes. It's organized loosely chronologically. It could serve as one's first history of the first half of the city's existence with a fair amount of attention to detail and dates, although the lack of text would be a disadvantage. If one already has a general idea of the city's history, though, it's a fine collection of maps and images.

It's not nearly as detailed as Passonneau's Washington Through Two Centuries, but has larger versions of some of the same images in Hamburg's Washington, D.C.: the Growth of the City. And it includes some images not in either, like a marvelous 1862 map showing all 60+ Civil War forts (the "hundred circling camps" of The Battle Hymn of the Republic).

Also included are images of city life from the 19th c. and of Civil War accommodations, and a bibliography with other city histories. ( )