The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. August 30, 2013 marks the 150th birthday for the master of early color photography in Russia–Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944). The Prokudin-Gorskii Collection at the Library of Congress features color photographic surveys of the vast Russian Empire made primarily between 1909 and …
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. Some 250,000 people, both white and black, crowded onto the National Mall on August 28, 1963, to demand civil rights for African Americans. It was the largest demonstration the city had seen—The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The concluding …
Reference staff member Elizabeth Terry Rose, exercising both her keen eye and her artistic sensibility, offered her reflections upon seeing this photo by Samuel Kravitt highlighting Shaker design. “Sewing table and chair caught my eye for its timeless tidiness, its dignified peace, its light. It is a Kravitt. It is a Wyeth, a Vermeer. An invitation.” …
Cataloger Greg Marcangelo turned up this image–a record catch from an August fishing expedition nearly 110 years ago. Greg notes, “As a Pisces, I’m always on the lookout for nice pictures of fish. But this – is it even real?? A quick internet search confirms that Giant Sea Bass may reach these proportions!” Learn more: …
Photography curator Carol Johnson spotted this evocative photograph. Carol comments: “The Swan Boats have been a fixture in the Boston Public Gardens for more than 100 years. Harking back to simpler times, the boat rides offer a peaceful break from busy city life.” The photographs shows half of a stereograph card. If you were to …
Reference specialist Marilyn Ibach spotted this scene among the thousands of photographs Carol M. Highsmith has taken in her project to document America. Marilyn’s comment: The immediate outline against the sky of a dinosaur skeleton, juxtaposed with a coy title that doesn’t confirm what you are seeing, makes you zoom in for a closer look, …
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. What tends to be 3.5 inches tall and 10 inches long? Postcards created in a panoramic view format. More than 400 oversize postcards are “new for you” in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. The Library received most of the postcards …
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. The United States celebrates Arbor Day on the last Friday in April to remind us of the need to plant and nurture trees. This year, the national celebration day prompted me to check the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. How many …
The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints. American author Dan Brown has famously described the Library of Congress Main Reading Room as the most beautiful room in Washington, D.C. (The Lost Symbol). While it is routinely open to researchers, drop-in visitors had the rare treat of photographing this inspiring …
