alphabetizing by states, where does D.C. go?

Factual Questions
1

At work (small company, not lg. corp.) I am alphabetizing Mapquest maps in order by: State, city, venue. Where is the correct place to put Washington, D.C.? I’m inclined to stick it in the front, we refer to it by D. C. , it seems logical to me, but is it “right”?

We only deal with about half the continental US, from TX and OK eastward.

2

Most people would put it under “District of Columbia.”

I’ve seen some websites that put it under “Washington, D.C.” and it annoys the heck out of me.

3

“Washington, D.C.” is filed under “District of Columbia” because historically (until 1871), the District contained, but was not necessarily limited to, a municipality called Washington.

Sez the Wikipedia article:

*The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the Territory of Columbia until an act of Congress in 1871 effectively merged the City and the Territory into a single entity called the District of Columbia. It is for this reason that the city, while legally named the District of Columbia, is known as Washington, D.C.
*

So basically, calling it “Washington” is something of an archaic holdover; from a legal point of view it’s just “D.C.”., though still commonly called “Washington, D.C.”.

4

Stick it as a prepender, as a separate list.

5

I put it in the front. Alphabetically my list began with Florida prior to adding D. C. Interesting history lesson Robardin, thanks. Just to confuse things a little, we have a couple venues that are actually in Maryland but which people tend to say are in D.C. (yes I’m anal, why do you ask?) :smiley:

6

The real question is, does it go before or after Delaware? You could make a case for “before”, arguing that the District of Columbia should be considered Columbia, just as the State of New York is considered New York, and should therefore fall between Colorado and Connecticut.

Invariably, however, when DC is alphabetized with the states, it gets listed as the District of Columbia, in between Delaware and Florida. For example, that’s how they did it when national conventions conducted roll calls.