Photographs in this collection are images of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (D.C., Maryland and Virginia suburbs) from the photo morgue of Nation’s Business, a publication of the United States Chamber of Commerce. The collection provides visual documentation of the District’s well-known federal and commercial architecture, scenes from the Kennedy and Truman administrations, and other images from events and life in Washington, D.C. from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Included in the collection are a unique selection of candid photographs depicting 1920s passengers on streetcars and images taken by photographers Robert Phillips and Jacques Lowe during the first six months of President John F. Kennedy’s administration.

The collection consists of 333 black and white gelatin silver prints arranged alphabetically into 41 subject headings with dates. Headings are for the most part of building names (Union Station), types (Gasoline Stations), subjects (Pedestrians), locations (Glen Echo, MD), or specific events (U.S. Chamber of Commerce-Meetings-1951). The majority of the photographic images are by contract photographers. Many photographs have hand-written notations indicating when the image was published.