Background:

These tinted color prints are from an early 1900s souvenir booklet featuring popular tourist sites in Washington, DC.  These types of books could be purchased at newsstands, hotel lobbies and even onboard trains traveling the tourist's destination.   The booklets were a reminder of a visit to the nation's capital, particularly in an age when cameras were not widely available for taking vacation photos.

All prints are provided with a copy of the accompanying description of the site shown on the print.  Following is an example for the Washington Monument print:

     The Washington Monument is a shaft of stone rising from the Mall 555 feet in the air.  It is the highest
     work of masonry in the world.  From whatever point it is beheld, the prodigious shaft is an impressive
     spectacle.  It seems to be uplifted above the plane of human achievement and to belong rather with the
     great phenomena of nature - the mighty wind, the sunshine and the shadow, the driving mist, the clouds
     and the sky.