It's not revolutionary, just a seldom-seen side of Concord's history

The old black-and-white photo shows two women, wearing print-patterned uniforms with white collars and puffy cap sleeves while they stand behind a knotty pine counter at the DeNormandie and Verrill Dairy. The ice cream flavors are spelled out in white letters on a board at the shop, which stood at the corner of Thoreau Street and Sudbury Road in Concord from 1939 to the 1960s.

Another photo, in vibrant color, shows the Dunkin' Donuts that now stands at the same location. A man in a baseball cap is waiting on customers, including a woman in jeans and a girl in a denim dress. ''Breaking News" appears on the television set that hangs from the ceiling, and bold pictures of a coffee cup and a muffin jump from the menu signs. The year is 2005.

The photographs are part of an exhibition that examines the history of Concord, without focusing on either of the revolutions that make the town a tourist destination: the war of independence and the Transcendentalist movement led by authors such as Emerson and Thoreau.

Instead, the Concord Museum's ''A Main Street Point of View" pairs then-and-now photographs to explore and celebrate the businesses that have lined the streets of the Milldam, Depot, and West Concord areas through the years. The museum hired photographer Eric Roth to take color digital photographs from the same vantage points as historic, black-and-white prints.

''There's no question Concord has an illustrious quality to it, but it also has a very humble quality," Roth said. ''It has a very hometown feel."

Historian Renee Garrelick, who is director of the Concord Business Partnership and has written several books about Concord's business history, said it is the first exhibit she has seen about the economic history of the town.

''It's part of the whole picture of the community," said Garrelick, who helped obtain the old photos for the exhibition. ''The Transcendentalists were not in a vacuum. The life of a community is its economic life as well as its other aspects. It's part of the entire fabric of a community's existence."

The exhibition also acquaints visitors with a slice of Concord's more recent history, the 20th century, which has received less notice than its more famous earlier history. Garrelick said there was a time when ''more was known about Concord in 1845 than in 1945."

Carol Haines, the museum's public relations officer, was part of the team behind the exhibition, which also includes artifacts such as signs; guns, a clock, and chests crafted in the shops; milk bottles from former dairies; and a 1906-07 account book from the Colonial Inn.

The exhibition, Haines said, can strike a chord with visitors from places other than Concord. ''Almost every town in the country had a drugstore, a five and 10, a bowling alley, and a family-owned supermarket," she said, ''so these are universal images familiar anywhere in the country."

Some of the older photos are mounted on sliding frames behind the modern views of the same location. Visitors can compare and contrast the images, finding both continuity and change.

''We wanted that layer notion, what used to be there, and what was there before that," said curator David Wood.

Roth is most known for his interior photography for magazines and has just completed a book on Irish pubs. He said that taking the photos had the same kind of effect on him as traveling to a foreign country. ''It makes you think about your life because you have something to compare it to," he said.

Many of the buildings in the older images are recognizable, but with horses, carriages, and even a streetcar instead of cars and bicycles in the foreground. One set of paired images, showing the building that spans 36-40 Main St., has all male shopkeepers posed outside the stores in the historic photo, while the modern shot has all women store owners and employees standing in the same place.

''It was coincidental, but once I saw it, I realized how fascinating it was," Roth said. ''It conveys how we have evolved socially."

In the modern photo of 36-40 Main St., the shops are George Vassel Jewelers, The Good House Shop, and The Grasshopper Shop. According to the text accompanying the photos, this building, erected before 1830, may be the oldest surviving commercial building in Concord.

''Here at various times have been a gunsmith, a watchmaker, a shoe store, a harness repair shop, a plumbing and appliance store, a dressmaker, a bicycle shop, and Sing Wah's Chinese Laundry," the text states.

The building is on the oldest portion of Concord's main street, which is called the Milldam because it once ran along the top of a dam that created a pond for a gristmill.

The earliest shops across the street from today's Grasshopper Shop were built on stilts over the pond. In the first half of the 20th century, the pond was drained and new brick buildings, some of which survive, were built by the Milldam Co.

Wood said he thinks that 36-40 Main St. and other historic buildings in Concord's business areas have survived for so long because of ''a little bit of benign neglect."

''It was in nobody's interest to tear them down" he said.

Visitors to the exhibition will also learn that Concord has several businesses that have continued for generations in the same family. For instance, Vanderhoof Hardware has been in the same location since 1904, and Scott Vanderhoof is the fourth-generation proprietor.

And the West Concord Supermarket is a third-generation business, which John Mandrioli Sr. started as a fruit stand at the corner of Main Street and Commonwealth Avenue in 1919 and moved to its present location in 1936. A photo taken around that time shows Mandrioli, wearing a tie under his white apron, standing near the front door.

The storefront had changed a lot by the time the modern photo was taken last year, but standing in front of the store, with more casual attire beneath their white coats, are the founder's grandsons, Paul Mandrioli and Peter Mandrioli Jr.

''A Main Street Point of View" runs until April 2 at the Concord Museum, at the corner of Lexington Road and Cambridge Turnpike. Admission to the museum is $8, $7 for seniors and students, and $5 for children ages 6 to 17. From 2 to 3:30 p.m. today, historian Renee Garrelick will lead a free public discussion at the museum with members of families who have had businesses in Concord for generations. Reservations are not required. A photo contest with prizes for both new and vintage photos is underway until March 17. Sally Heaney can be reached at heaney@globe.com.