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Posted by: Kristi Finefield
When I first saw this photo of a ship sporting a boldly patterned look, I definitely did a double take. This British ship is the Mauretania, a Cunard Line superliner pressed into service during World War I as both a troop transport ship and a hospital ship, then returned to civilian life in the post-war …
Posted in: Photographs, Posters, Series: Caught Our Eyes
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. When the elegant Hispanic Reading Room opened in October 1939, its closest neighbor at the Library of Congress was the Division of Fine Arts, known today as the Prints & Photographs Division. Over the last 75 years, we have enjoyed collaborating …
Posted in: Hispanic American History, Prints
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Verna Curtis, Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division. Imagine how people understood photographs in 1900, when photography had been around for just over sixty years. Were photographs factual documents? Could they be a new form of artistic expression? Those producing photographic prints knew, but the public was …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The following is a guest post for the Feast Your Eyes series by Brett Carnell, Head of Technical Services, Prints and Photographs Division. Growing up in a ranching community means that when autumn is in the air, my mind drifts to the legendary fall roundup and its iconic chuck wagon as depicted in classic Western …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Feast Your Eyes
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
This year’s anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has offered occasion to pause and reflect on the injustices the legislation was meant to address, the actions that called attention to those injustices, and the continued struggle to see legislative ideals become everyday reality. Last week we added a new “album” to the Library …
Posted in: African American History, Flickr, News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Water poses a particular challenge for cameras because like most technology, they prefer not to get wet. This fact doesn’t stop a determined photographer. The examples below offer up a number of ways to work under, through and over water – anything to get the shot! What to do if your intended subjects live underwater? …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Anything to Get the Shot
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The following is a guest post for the Feast Your Eyes series by Marilyn Ibach, Reference Specialist, Prints and Photographs Division. The latest installment in the Feast Your Eyes series features a perennial favorite: the doughnut. The constant in these images of doughnuts is their appeal – seen in the smiling faces of soldiers, society …
Posted in: Photographs, Posters, Series: Feast Your Eyes
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? The lengthy title of John Bower’s famous print [below] depicting the 1814 British bombardment at Fort McHenry both describes the scene portrayed and provides a tidy summary of the sustained barrage: “A view of the …
Posted in: Prints
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
My colleagues and I had a wonderful time talking with visitors to our table at the National Book Festival last Saturday. We brought copies of some of our favorite photographs, prints, and drawings, focusing on those for which we knew at least a piece of the story behind them. And we literally put the story …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs