The Library of Congress’ popular site on Flickr now features a set of lovely, century-old photochrom images of buildings and scenery from Belgium. Even if you don’t know your Flemings from your Walloons, these 108 pictures of places like Antwerp and Blankenberghe, Liege, Ghent and Louvain will transport you to times of yore.
Media consumers today are bombarded with imagery of current events — some of them ephemeral, on our TV screens, and some more indelible. A century ago, the use of halftone images was beginning to revolutionize newspapers and bringing the immediacy of photography to the masses. Today the Library launched a new photostream on our Flickr …
The Library’s Prints & Photographs Division today is offering a new twist on the Library’s Flickr site in The Commons — a clickable list of favorites from the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information collections, under the heading “FSA/OWI Favorites.” There will be 10 “most-requested” photos from these Library collections, including the iconic …
The general webby reaction to our pilot project with Flickr, which launched “The Commons,” has been rather Oliver Twist-like: “More, please!” We started with thousands of Bain news photos from the 1910s and color images from the 1930s and 1940s (a project of the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information). For Veterans …
The Library’s Prints and Photographs Division has added 116 photocrom travel views of the Netherlands from 100 years ago to our Flickr page, bringing the total number of photochroms on Flickr to 773. Photochroms, published primarily from the 1890s to 1910s, are prints that were created by the Photoglob Company in Zürich, Switzerland, and the …
(Ed. note: This post comes to us from Phil Michel, Digital Conversion Coordinator for the Prints & Photographs Division, and one of the authors of the new book Baseball Americana.) While the baseball season winds down and the excitement of another World Series chase begins, we’re celebrating the national pastime with a new book, Baseball …
The Washington Post had some nice coverage of Saturday’s National Book Festival, including a video asking authors what they would do if they were “literature czar” and what their favorite books are. Also featured was a brief interview with the always delightful poet laureate (a position appointed by the Library of Congress), Kay Ryan. By …
Right now, here and there all over the world, people are sitting down with a good book and enjoying a good read. Sprawled on the lawn, curled up on the sofa, sitting on the steps in the piazza — they’re communing with a great author, or a funny author, or an author who’s telling them …
Take a moment out of this busy day to relax at the side of a waterfall at Fairy Glen in Bettws-y-Coed Wales or go explore the castle ruins at Aberystwith, Wales. We’ve loaded 167 new color Photocrom travel views of Wales from 1890-1900 on our Flickr photostream at www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/. The set is full of castles …