What do we see?
The photographs in this section were taken in June of 1968, when demolition of the area – including many of these buildings – was happening simultaneously with construction of city and county offices on the edges of the project area. You can see signs of demolition and new construction in some of these images.
What kinds of questions can you answer using these photographs? What do they tell you about the urban landscape of Tucson, the quality of life here, or the impacts of urban renewal?
Primary sources like these are important both as historical documentation and as launch pads for new scholarship; understanding how the history of this region continues to shape the present helps us become more civically engaged.
What other lines of thinking do these images inspire for you? Some questions can’t be answered from one or two images alone; what questions can you think of that can only be answered by digging deeper or cross-referencing other sources? Open your mind to brainstorm questions that you can’t answer on your own yet.
