Boundary Stones | WETA's Washington DC Local History Website

“Daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe, known as the "Annie" Daguerreotype,” 1849, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe#/media/File:Edgar_Allan_Poe_daguerreotype_crop.png

Poe's Washington Excursion

The celebrated, yet ever tormented, writer Edgar Allan Poe, famously spent much of his life living in Baltimore and Richmond, but he surprisingly spent very little time in D.C. despite residing in such close proximity. He did however have one…interesting encounter in Washington. Frequent transitions through different literary critic jobs left him in a constant state of mental and financial instability; this led Poe to determine that he needed to find a job that could provide him with more financial security. His friend Frederick William Thomas was friends with President John Tyler's son, Robert, and offered to help get him a government job. Eventually, in 1843, Poe traveled down to Washington from his home in Philadelphia to meet with the President. The true account of how Poe conducted himself upon arriving is still contested today.

Decades Before Rosa Parks, D.C.'s Barbara Pope Challenged Segregation on Public Transportation

Though Rosa Parks may be the face of peaceful resistance to segregation on public transportation, she was not the first to adopt the strategy. Claudette Colvin, Ellen Harris, Maggie Lena Walker, Ida B...
Frederick Douglass’s Son Charles Pioneered Black Baseball in D.C.

Washington, DC, has a rich baseball history stretching back over 160 years. But long before the Nationals and Senators of Major League Baseball and the Negro leagues’ Homestead Grays won over legions...
During the Civil War, Roosevelt Island Was Home to Black Troops and a Freedman’s Camp

While it’s known today for its forested hiking trails and outdoor memorial to America’s 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt Island played a prominent role in Washington, DC’s Civil War history. In 1863...

The lead contingent of an Equal Rights Amendment demonstration proceeds down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the U.S. Capitol on July 9, 1978.

Women's History Month

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The Anti-Flirt Club: The Movement to End Unwanted Attention in the 1920s

In the 1920s, a group of D.C. women formed the Anti-Flirt Club to put a stop to the increasingly annoying, and at times dangerous, problem of men harassing women from motor vehicles and street corners.
August 14, 2025
- Washington, D.C.
By Lily Applebaum
Women at War: The Navy's First African American Yeomanettes

As the United States entered World War I, women became a vital part of the war effort. The Navy created a single unit of African-American Yeomanettes, which was assigned to Washington D.C.'s Navy Yard, and quickly made an impression.
August 7, 2018
- Washington, D.C.
By Shaune Lee
Pioneering D.C. Artist Inez Demonet Helped WWI Soldiers Put Their Lives Back Together

Washington based artist Inez M. Demonet specialized in etchings and watercolors of District landmarks and people, but she spent most of her time in an office at the National Institute of Health, where she worked as a medical illustrator. Her pioneering work during World War I helped educate doctors and public health professionals, and even helped repair the lives of soldiers returning from World War I. It was not a job for the faint of heart.
March 29, 2024
- Washington, D.C.
By Katherine Brodt

Watch & Learn

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The Silent Sentinels Turned the Tide for Women’s Suffrage

Suffragists in Washington overcame brutality in the fight for the vote.
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The History of the Monopoly Board Game Might Surprise You

Think you know the history of the Monopoly board game? You might be surprised.
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When Women Marched and Men Rioted: The 1913 Women's Suffrage March

In 1913, thousands of women paraded through DC, overcoming crowds of drunken men to demand the vote.