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Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
This September 1924 National Photo Company image of an auto house caught my eye not only because of the delight it sparked in seeing such a novel vehicle, but also because the lack of contextual information set me to wondering and wanting to know more. For example, assuming that the photo shows Mr. Harris and …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Caught Our Eyes
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a landmark Civil Rights demonstration held on August 28, 1963 in Washington, DC. We have photographs in many collections that document this famous event. But the U.S. News & World Report Collection …
Posted in: African American History, News & Events, Photographs, Visual literacy
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
Where in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room can you find file cabinets full of photographs of everything from “Animals in Human Situations” to “Zoological Gardens,” from “Airplanes” to “Yachts and Yachting,” and from “Avalanches” to “Winter Scenes”? The Specific Subjects File (SSF). These 20,000 photographs of objects, events, activities, and structures, arranged by topical headings, now enjoy expanded …
Posted in: Photographs
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
Every summer we can rent a cottage, in the Isle of Wight, if it’s not too dear –“When I’m Sixty-Four,” John Lennon & Paul McCartney Since we’re in the midst of Washington, D.C.’s first genuine heat wave this summer, my mind turns to imagining cooler climes. And, naturally, these daydreams often involve cooling waters. Real travel is not in …
Posted in: Prints
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought on July 1-3, 1863, at a small town in Pennsylvania. The fierce fighting was a major turning point in the American Civil War, with an estimated 50,000 casualties—dead, wounded, and missing Union and Confederate soldiers. …
Posted in: Drawings, Flickr, Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
Some people contend that great art is distinguished in the attention the artist paid to the most minute details. Artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) may be a good case in point in that he even turned his creative energy to the way in which he signed his work. H. Barbara Weinberg of the Department of American …
Posted in: Drawings, Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
My two kids participated in an annual end-of-the-school-year event earlier this week: Field Day. My memories of field days consist of contests such as the water balloon toss or varieties of races including the sack race or the three-legged race. In this Russell Lee photograph above, the young fellow, looking for all the world like …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Caught Our Eyes
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
A new biographical essay about photographer Ann Rosener (1914-2012) sheds light on her wartime work as she focused on the contributions of women workers and other aspects of the World War II home front. In the early 1940s Rosener documented preparations for war and home front activities for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) by contributing …
Posted in: Photographs, Women's History
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
Strange as it may appear, whatever may be a colored man’s natural capacity and literary attainments, I believe that, as soon as he leaves the academic halls to mingle in the only society he can find in the United States, unless he be a minister or lecturer, he must and will retrograde. –Augustus Washington, letter …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs, Portraits