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Elliot Carter is a writer and historian in Washington, D.C.[1]

Life and career

Carter is a contributing writer for the Washington Post, Politico, Washingtonian Magazine and Slate.[2][3][4][5] His work has appeared in outlets such as Atlas Obscura, Vice, Real Clear Defense, and DCist.[6][7][8][9] His work is heavily focused on Washington D.C.’s architecture, geography and history.

In 2016, Carter obtained and published maps of the District of Columbia compiled during the Cold War by a military intelligence office in the USSR.[10][11] He noted in an interview that the Soviet maps were far more detailed than their publicly available U.S. counterparts, capturing sensitive information about military bases and the layout of utility infrastructure.[12]

In 2017, Carter’s research about the atomic bomb-proof vault that protects the U.S. Constitution led to the rediscovery of a refrigerator-sized electrical model of the vault in the basement of the National Archives. The device was subsequently restored, and now stands in the Archives building on Pennsylvania Avenue beside a commemorative historical plaque.[13]

In 2018 Carter was awarded a grant from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities “to compile a meticulous anthology of all the tunnels in the District — subway and freight rail tunnels, pedestrian passageways, underground steam tunnels, sewage and water pipelines.”[14] According to an article in CityLab, Carter is using tunnels to explore the “cultural history of the federal government and the city where it sits.”[15]

References

  1. ^ Siddiqui, Faiz (June 27, 2016). "Metro 1967 plan: 'SERVICE WILL BE FREQUENT: Air conditioned trains will run every two minutes'". Washington Post.
  2. ^ Carter, Elliot (November 1, 2018). "Author Page". Slate Magazine.
  3. ^ Carter, Elliot (November 1, 2018). "Author Page". Washingtonian Magazine.
  4. ^ Carter, Elliot (April 21, 2019). "When the Washington Easter Egg Roll Was Chaos". Politico. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  5. ^ Carter, Elliot (July 7, 2019). "In 1919, driving cross-country was a crazy idea. An Army convoy set out to show it could be done". The Washington Post.
  6. ^ Carter, Elliot (January 3, 2018). "What Do You Do When the President Gets Trapped in an Elevator?". Atlas Obscura.
  7. ^ Carter, Elliot. "Poo Sank This Nazi Submarine".
  8. ^ Carter, Elliot (March 16, 2015). "The Next Front in the Syrian Civil War: Tunnel Wars". Archived from the original on 2015-03-17.
  9. ^ Carter, Elliot (October 26, 2016). "This Massive Pool In Bethesda Is Made For Model Ships". DCist. Archived from the original on June 23, 2019.
  10. ^ Kurzius, Rachel (August 29, 2016). "Check Out These Amazing Soviet Maps Of D.C." DCist. Archived from the original on May 21, 2019.
  11. ^ Carter, Elliot (December 2, 2016). "Russia Spied on DC for Decades Using This Inaccurate Map".
  12. ^ Lokay, Jim (August 30, 2016). "Detailed Soviet maps of Washington DC discovered". Fox 5.
  13. ^ Carter, Elliot (March 6, 2017). "Found: A Miniature Working Model of the National Archives Vault". Atlas Obscura.
  14. ^ Martine, Powers (October 8, 2018). "Amateur archivist takes on a quest through history — and the D.C. region's extensive tunnel system". Washington Post.
  15. ^ Small, Andrew (October 30, 2018). "Mapping the Many Tunnels Under Washington, D.C." CityLab.


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