Boston Building Department photographic collection, 1920s-1930s
Description:
The Boston Building Department Photographic Collection includes over 1,000 original prints and negatives by W. W. K. Campbell. The prints document buildings that had come to the Department's attention as a result of complaints about their safety. Many items possess attached documentation regarding the nature of the complaint and the action taken to correct it. All communities incorporated into Boston, as well as those in the downtown area, are represented by images, such as South Boston, Charlestown, East Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Brighton, and Chelsea. The collection is a record of urban decay and building traditions associated with working class neighborhoods that are not well documented. Photographs of many late-eighteenth and early-nineteeth-century structures show that they had fallen on hard times. For the most part, the images tend to be strictly documentary, though there are occasional glimpses of the surrounding streets and inhabitants. Source: Guide to the Library and Archives, 9.
