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A long shot of yardwork figures in the last of eight plates of the Douglas property in Takoma Park, Maryland, circa 1895. 5x7 glass negative by Edward M. Douglas (1857-1936) and donated to Shorpy by his great-grandson. View full size.
My family members and I are very grateful and pleased to see these glass plates brought back to life on Shorpy. One minor correction is that Edward Douglas died in 1932. Going through our family archives reveals a really interesting fellow. He graduated from Columbia College (now University) in NYC in 1881, with a degree in civil engineering. In 1882 he gained a position with the U.S. Geological Survey, where he spent the years from 1883 to about 1904 as chief topographer mapping the states and territories of the Western US. He worked at USGS and later the War Dept, for 45 years. The photo below shows (click to enlarge) him and the family on the porch at TP around the time of the other photos. His interest in mapping and photography was life-long, and after his retirement from government service he worked at an early aerial photo-mapping company up until he had to quit for health reasons. No doubt Google Earth would amaze him.
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