On two occasions in 1874, an unknown photographer walked through the campus at Georgetown, taking photographs of the buildings and grounds. The resulting twenty-three images provide a fascinating and at times unrecognizable glimpse of a small but proud university and the city growing around it. For the first time, these images are all available in an online exhibition on the Library’s website.
The images, which are accompanied by the photographer’s descriptions from 1874 and explanatory notes from University Archivist Lynn Conway, show a campus on which only seven buildings stood (the South Building, the North Building, McSherry, Gervase, Mulledy, Maguire and the Observatory), surrounded by rolling fields and woods. Take a stroll back into time and try to imagine the Hilltop 140 years ago!