What Are We Digitizing?

Photographs! We have approximately 10,000 photos in the library dating back to the early 1920s, and began digitizing them for both preservation and access. Several thousand are currently in our DDOT Back in Time online archive 

Historical reports! We have government reports on transportation in DC going back to the early 1900s, and began digitizing them and making them available online in summer 2019 

Maps! There's fewer of these at present, but it's a future goal to have more. We have maps going back to the 1940s

Why Are we Digitizing? 

Preservation! Some of our materials are aging, and need to be digitized in order to be preserved long-term. Once we scan photos and reports they are stored on our shared drive, as well as in the DDOT Back in Time online archive. 

Access! It is much easier (and better for the materials) if employees and outside researchers both can access our materials in a digital format. Uploading them into DDOT Back in Time uncovers our collection for the public, and also makes it available to people who cannot come into the physical library. Digitizing our historical materials allows us to organize them into collections, add metadata and tags, and generally makes these unique items easier to find. 

Historical Report Examples 

Learn more about DC bridges in the 1950s!                                     

We also have a lot of historical material on Anacostia! 

There's also lots on the National Mall area, including topics like parking and urban renewal! 

Photograph Examples 

A photograph of the John Philip Sousa Bridge, previously known as the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge, from 1939.

A photograph of the remaining flooding after Hurricane Agnes in 1972. 

A photograph of Pennsylvania and Minnesota Avenue, from 1947.