Top of page

Archive: 2011 (23 Posts)

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

A Closer Look: Dating a Photo

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

What’s the date of this photo? Take your best guess, and then I’ll mention some clues I pursued. The photo shows the busy catalog card distribution office at the Library of Congress. There’s no date on the photographic print. Recently, we needed to determine when the photo was taken, so out came my magnifying glass. …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Recent Acquisition: Marilyn Church’s Courtroom Drawings

Posted by: Jeff Bridgers

The tools of her trade are simple: colored pencils, crayons, pens, and paper. Yet, armed with just these tools artist Marilyn Church  has brought to life some of the most dramatic moments in high-profile courtroom trials during the past 36 years.  Her work has covered such well-known people as Martha Stewart, J.K. Rowling, Bernard L. Madoff, Jacqueline Onassis, the men …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Photographer in the Picture

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

Catch the man – and the woman – behind the camera in a set of photographs recently added to the Library of Congress Flickr photostream. Drawn from multiple collections and ranging from the mid-1800s to the modern day, the Photographer in the Picture set shows photographers at work, sometimes catching them only in shadow or …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Caught Our Eyes: Sisters Who Weave

Posted by: Jeff Bridgers

On September 26, 1859, sisters Lucretia Electa and Louisa Ellen Crossett stood before photographer Alfred Hall to have their portrait taken together in Lawrence, Massachusetts. I like to think of them as mill workers participating in the expanding American Industrial Revolution. The sisters, dressed in identical aprons, blouses, and simple jewelry, are both holding weaving …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Welcome to Picture This!

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

The Picture This blog invites you to share our love of pictures and the stories they can tell. You’ll see special images that caught our eye and also learn about entire collections as we explore the vast holdings of the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress—more than 14.5 million photos, posters, cartoons, …