This presentation considers four distinct sets of photographs taken by George Barnard, a photographer who contracted his services with the Union Army.

• The First Set was a series of photos taken in the central business district of the city.
• The Second Set is a panoramic shot taken from the cupola of the Female Seminary located on what is now Courtland Street
• The Third Set of photos was taken in the vacinity of City Hall Square.
• The Fourth Set was taken west of the downtown area, near the roundhouse and mechanical facilities of the Western & Atlantic Railroad

Copies of all these sets were downloaded from the Library of Congress' American Memory website. All were extremely large files, in excess of 1 million megabyes, which meant they could be examined in minute detail using commonly available photo editing programs. In some cases, the photographs - or portions of them - were artifically enhanced through common photo editing techniques to bring out hidden details.

Each section of this website represents my findings after examining each of these photos in detail. Because of the flat focal nature of these photos, each detail is in focus relative to one another. In other words, items in the foreground are just as much in focus as artifacts in the distance. This means signage and other features are preserved, enabling me to identify many of these commercial buildings and research the various businesses that occupied them.

 

In each section you will find that I have annotated the photographs and discussed my findings. I have also included, where I thought helpful, locator maps (such as the ones on this page) which will help orient the reader to the locations shown.

In examining the photos Barnard took of the downtown area, it was found that Barnard took photographs from at least 10 vantage points.

At four of these vantage points, Barnard had sequentially shifted the position of his stereo camera to capture the full sweep of the vista before him. I used a common photo editing method to "stitch" some of these photos together, creating an "artificial panorama." The effect is not perfect, as there are many distortions, especially in the foregrounds of the pictures, yet they come closest to showing what the city looked like at that time.