To get a glimpse into Natchez’s past, two new pictures books by Natchezians, Joan W. and Dr. Thomas H. Gandy are a good place to start.

The Gandys held a book signing Saturday at Cover to Cover Books for the books — &uot;Natchez: City Streets Revisited&uot; and &uot;Natchez: Landmarks, Lifestyles and Leisure.&uot;

&uot;These are great Christmas presents,&uot;&160;said Karen Stubbs, who came to the book-signing. &uot;(It) couldn’t be better timing.&uot;

Each book includes about 200 pictures from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.

The Gandys compiled the books from the work of three photographers of the era, Henry Gurney, Henry Norman and Earl Norman.

These books are two of several the Gandys have released that include pictures from these photographers.

&uot;I don’t want to miss having any of these,&uot; Stubbs said. &uot;These are too good to miss.&uot;

&uot;Natchez:&160;City Streets Revisited&uot; talks about the photographers and includes many street scenes and panoramic shots of the city.

&uot;(Thomas’) idea is to show what the photographer presented to the patron and what the photographer saw through his lens,&uot; Joan said.

It also shows before and after shots of repaired negatives.

&uot;Natchez:&160;Landmarks, Lifestyles and Leisure&uot; includes many close shots of people, such as a group called the Bud Scott band.

&uot;It’s just a wonderful picture and how fortunate — we had all of these names,&uot; Joan said.

Cover to Cover has ordered more copies of the books and expects to have them in by Thursday. The Gandys will return to the store to sign the new copies in the future.

The Gandy’s have ideas in mind for two other photo books — one on early century fashions/bridal gowns and another featuring life in the 1930s.

&uot;In working in the darkroom (Thomas) kept coming across woman in full-length, very fine fashions of the 19th century,&uot; Joan said.

The Gandys think they have several hundred fashion pictures suitable for a book. As for the 1930s, a lot of things happened in Natchez during that decade, Joan said.

&uot;That was the decade the Pilgrimage started,&uot; Joan said. &uot;(And) the town was interesting during that decade.&uot;

They have plenty of pageant pictures of and pictures of buildings in their collection, she added.