This week’s “snowstorm” may have sent Washington, D.C., into its typical winter-weather panic, but it was nothing compared to the Great Blizzard of 1888, which in mid-March shut down much of the East Coast with snowfalls of up to four feet. Downed telegraph wires cut off communications in Washington, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston for several days. In the photo above, a man stands next to an impromptu snow hut.