Get your scissors, glue, and a lot of patience ready, because today I bring you a D.I.Y. project from the 19th century. (A basic grasp of French – or access to an online translator – might also come in handy!) Part of a series of “Petites Constructions” created by the French company Pellerin & Cie, …
When I think about roller skating as a kid, I remember fun Friday nights at the skating rink with friends, pop music and treats at the snack bar. There was the joy of going fast, and the occasional wipe out from going a bit too fast. Not a problem for 4-year-old Betty Buck, since the …
During a Washington D.C. summer, it’s a given that it will be hot and humid, and this summer is definitely living up to that standard. While I was thinking about how much I love air conditioning, my attention was caught by these photos, featuring people seeking relief from the heat in a time when air conditioning …
Artists working for the Federal Art Project (FAP), a part of the Work Projects Administration (WPA), created thousands of posters between 1936 and 1943. The posters took on all manner of topics: public health and safety, cultural events and exhibitions, education, tourism, and wartime warnings, to name a few. Only a small percentage of those …
People today have instant access to news from all over the world through the Internet, often right in the palm of their hand on a smartphone. A series of photographs taken on D-Day in 1944 show that people looked up to get the news in Times Square, rather than down at their electronic devices. The …
I’ve heard of going to great lengths, but daredevil “Jersey” Ringel goes to new heights in this photograph. Perched perilously on the top wing of a plane, Ringel appears to be shooting moving film footage, perhaps of another aerial acrobat executing a stunt. Most photographs of Newark native Ringel show him in these kinds of …
The sight of a single car on the road in traffic-heavy Washington, D.C. was enough to catch my eye, but this photo was intriguing for other reasons as well. The car is front and center, but clearly the U.S. Capitol rising prominently behind it is key to the composition. And the photographer seems to be …
In these photographs, we see two houses, both set in rural Virginia, in the mid-nineteenth century. These were the homes, a few years apart, of a retired officer of the Virginia militia named Wilmer McLean and his family. At first glance, the houses and these facts are unremarkable. But the history these walls witnessed, and …
We asked “What’s the Story?” – and the answers came rolling in! Two months ago, we added twenty photographic puzzlers from the Harris & Ewing collection to the Library’s Flickr account with the (we hoped) tantalizing headline of “Mystery Photos – What’s the Story?” The corresponding glass negatives for these photos came to us without …