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Archive: 2014 (52 Posts)

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

Feast Your Eyes: Fruit Forever Fresh in Still Life

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

The following is a guest post by Martha H. Kennedy, Curator of Popular & Applied Graphic Arts, Prints and Photographs Division. The vibrant colors and massive watermelon in this hand-colored lithograph first caught my eye. Tucked around, beside, and below the melon are rosy apples, golden pears, peaches, plums, blackberries, a cantaloupe, and dark and …

Richard Morris Hunt: Exploring the Man and the Legacy

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

Update in 2024: A new Richard Morris Hunt Research Guide is available. While reading Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City about events in 1890s Chicago during the World’s Columbian Exposition, I became intrigued by the glimpses Larson provided of architect Richard Morris Hunt, one of the contributors to the exposition’s monumental design. Richard …

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

Calling All House Detectives: Can You Name These Buildings?

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Gay Colyer, Digital Library Specialist, Prints & Photographs Division. We need your help to identify 68 photos of historic structures. They’re posted in a Flickr album called “Mystery Houses,” so that it’s easy to add your notes.* The photographer, Frances Benjamin Johnston, did leave a basic clue for …

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

Travel Posters: A New Reference Aid

Posted by: Jeff Bridgers

As we head into Memorial Day weekend, millions of Americans will hit the road thus launching the summer travel season. Get in the vacation mindset by having a look at the out of this world travel posters in the Prints and Photographs Division collections. A new reference aid “Around the World with the Library of Congress Poster …

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

Caught Our Eyes: Games on the Go

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

Clearly the ladies below are determined to get in their game of Mah-Jongg! A photographer for the National Photo Company snapped a photo of this inventive method of taking a game on the go while still enjoying a cooling dip in the water: A recent blog post about board games focused on the games themselves, …

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

George Washington and the Inaugural Inauguration

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

George Washington delivered the country’s first inaugural address 225 years ago on April 30th, 1789. Just as the legends pertaining to Washington have grown and persisted since his lifetime, so has the iconography. Throughout the years, artists have provided their own conceptions of the first presidential inauguration, as in this print published in 1849, which …