The 1800s Archive

The architects behind the buildings — their lives, the works we hold, and what else they designed (via Wikidata). Click any to open their profile.

Every film in the archive — world's fairs, city panoramas, street scenes, and architecture, 1894–1915 (Library of Congress & Internet Archive). Click any clip to play it in the browser; filter by collection or decade.

Dated facts pulled from the official reports — construction milestones, costs, contracts/orders, financing, openings — each with the exact source passage. Click a row to read its quote; use the dropdowns to focus on one collection or one kind of event.

Drag the slider to move through time. Set Window to ±N years to see only what's happening around that moment (the fire, then the rebuild); "All years" shows everything up to that year. Use the collection chips to filter by type — fairs, asylums, banks, government, and more (click to toggle, "All" to reset). Click a number-cluster to flip through all its photos in the lightbox; scroll/zoom the map to break clusters apart by region. Hover a single pin to enlarge, click to open. Square pins are photos/prints; round teal pins with a ▦ badge are maps & plans of that place — both move with the time slider, so you see photos and maps of an era together without switching views. Needs internet for map tiles.