Titian Ramsay Peale’s First Attempt at Photography: Peirce Mill 1855
Titian Ramsay Peale's First Attempt at Photography: Peirce Mill, 1855 On September 26, 1855, artist and naturalist Titian Ramsay Peale set up a camera near Peirce Mill. He was experimenting with the revolutionary new medium of photography, invented less than twenty years earlier. Peale placed [...]
Llewellyn Berry: Peirce Mill in Photographs
Llewellyn Berry: Peirce Mill in Photographs Photographer Llewellyn Berry first came to Rock Creek Park as a child, and later wrote that "Peirce Mill was a particular interest to me because of the waterfall outside and the stone edifice of the building itself." Berry [...]
Peirce Mill (Art) History
Peirce Mill (Art) History Built almost 200 years ago, today Peirce Mill is a familiar sight in Rock Creek Park and a reminder of Washington’s agrarian past. But from the beginning, the mill was also a popular subject for local artists. Around 1830, an anonymous [...]
Dam History: The Waterfall at Peirce Mill
Dam History: The Waterfall at Peirce Mill The waterfall at Peirce Mill is one of Rock Creek Park's most iconic features. But what is it? First, it’s not a real waterfall, or at least not a natural one. The boulder dam near Peirce Mill was [...]
One Woman’s Right to Vote: Hattie Bolton, Tucson, 1913
One Woman’s Right to Vote: Hattie Bolton, Tucson, 1913 On April 30, 1913, Hattie Bolton registered to vote at the Pima County Courthouse in Tucson, Arizona. She was one of just seven Black women to sign up in the city that spring. It was the final day of [...]
Hattie Sewell and the Peirce Mill Teahouse
Hattie Sewell and the Peirce Mill Teahouse In 1920, Rock Creek Park's managers awarded a contract to run the teahouse at Peirce Mill to an African American woman named Hattie Sewell. But after a prominent neighbor's racist complaints, she lost the contract in the fall [...]