Cities in pictures
The history and heritage of American and British cities — founders and fires, bridges and cathedrals, famous people and forgotten stories — in old photographs, engravings and paintings.
American citiesNew York: a Dutch wall, a bridge-builder's wife and a reversed skyWashington, D.C.: L'Enfant's plan, the 1814 fire and a marble obeliskBoston: two lanterns, a grasshopper and a wave of molassesPhiladelphia: a cracked bell, a giant's bones and a carved sunChicago: a fire, a fair, a blameless cow and a river run backward
British citiesLondon: a sold bridge, a great fire and a bell called Big BenEdinburgh: a volcano, a drained loch and a gun at one o'clockYork: an emperor, a Viking king and a tower that turned pinkBath: curses in a hot spring, a dandy's rules and a new planetOxford: dreaming spires, a bell on its own time and the real Alice
Images: Wikimedia Commons — public-domain works and photographs released into the public domain or under CC0 (including the Library of Congress, the Rijksmuseum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Zestly is not affiliated with any museum, archive or city named here.