Georgetown Time Machine

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I felt like sharing this charming drawing of the neighborhood. It comes from the DC Historical Society. It dates to around 1860 and it was published by Charles Magnus, a famous mid-19th century lithograph publisher.

It’s not exactly a photo-realistic depiction of Georgetown, of course. But it does nonetheless convey the feeling of how bustling and urban the neighborhood already was at this point in its history. This may be depicting Georgetown at the peak of its identity as an active port town. You can see both steamships and sailboats plying its shores. (If you want a photorealistic depiction of this era of tallships in Georgetown, look no further than this spectacular 1865 photo:

But there’s something a bit more charming about the lithograph…