A history of Columbus,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Columbus from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The first settlement was made at Columbus in 1868. The first post office in Columbus was established in 1869.
Columbus was a railroad junction for the Saint Louis and San Francisco, and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas railroads. It was named Columbus by A.L. Peters, one of the European-American founders, for his hometown of Columbus, Ohio; the name thus indirectly honors Christopher Columbus, the explorer. Coal, lead and zinc were mined in the region. Columbus had a considerable trade in agricultural products, and its businesses included machine shops, grain elevators, flour mills, a cigar factory, bottle works (soft drinks), a canning factory, and an extensive brick-making plant.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Columbus’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewMaud Norton Memorial Hospital, 1920: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Columbus
See all 8 →
Columbus, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Maud Norton Memorial Hospital (1920) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (3) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.