That damned Alan Taylor. He edits the “In Focus” photo blog at the Atlantic — which I have featured here and here and here — and each time I vow not to write about him again but he finds such compelling images on such an incomprehensibly wide range of subjects that I invariably break down. So it is now: last year’s 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War occasioned so much coverage that I would have thought there was nothing remaining for this year, but Taylor has brought together a selection of Library of Congress photographs under the rubric of The Places that brings that distant time alive like nothing I’ve ever seen. Here are a few of my favorites; check the Atlantic for the full collection.
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Also, click here to see one of the most extraordinary early American photographs, the Cincinnati Daguerreotypes of 1848. Or here to see early-20th century color photographs of Tsarist Russia. Or here to see the Great Depression in color.