Have you ever wondered what the Main Plaza in front of San Fernando Cathedral looked like in the mid-19th century? Or what businesses surrounded Military Plaza in the early 20th century?

By Juli McLoone, Rare Books Librarian

Have you ever wondered what the Main Plaza in front of San Fernando Cathedral looked like in the mid-19th century? Or what businesses surrounded Military Plaza in the early 20th century?

Through The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Historypin channel, researchers now can geographically and chronologically browse a small selection of San Antonio photographs. Over the last several months, the UTSA Libraries Special Collections department has uploaded more than 280 photographs from the Institute of Texan Cultures’ General Photograph Collection.

Most images depict San Antonio’s plazas and downtown intersections.

The collection consists of about 40,000 images dating from the mid-19th century to present. It documents Texas people, places and events. Most photographs in this collection are copies of negatives from originals that were owned by families, businesses and organizations.

The collection also includes photographic copies of drawings, engravings, printed materials and paintings.

Historypin’s Google Maps interface provides a uniquely visual browsing experience through San Antonio’s past. However, images available through Historypin represent only a small portion of digitized photographs from this collection. More than 10,000 Digital Collections images may be viewed online.