A history of Phoenix,
since 1868
Postcards, papers and photographs of Phoenix from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The Hohokam people occupied the Phoenix area for 2,000 years. They created roughly 135 miles (217 kilometers) of irrigation canals, making the desert land arable, and paths of these canals were used for the Arizona Canal, Central Arizona Project Canal, and the Hayden-Rhodes Aqueduct. They also carried out extensive trade with the nearby Ancestral Puebloans, Mogollon, and Sinagua, as well as with the more distant Mesoamerican civilizations. It is believed periods of drought and severe floods between 1300 and 1450 led to the Hohokam civilization's abandonment of the area.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Phoenix’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
4 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewThe busy corner of Phoenix, Arizo…, 1908: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Phoenix
See all 27 →
Phoenix, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as The busy corner of Phoenix, Arizona - Lester Clement Barton (1908) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.