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Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The Great Hall in the Library of Congress Jefferson Building echoes with the hubbub of enthusiastic visitors absorbing the ornate details of its salute to knowledge and creativity. Much as I relish those sights and sounds, on a recent afternoon, I enjoyed dipping into a room just off the Great Hall to contemplate a small, …
Posted in: Architecture, News & Events, Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
The following is a guest post by Karen Chittenden and Woody Woodis, Cataloging Specialists in the Prints & Photographs Division: A curious form of engraved print appeared in London in the early 18th century on which multiple images appear to be randomly scattered across the surface of the paper as though they were being viewed upon …
Posted in: Prints
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
Among the hardest questions we receive is “Where in the world are the architectural drawings for [fill in the site]?” or “Where are the drawings by architect [fill in the name]?” Although we can establish whether we hold the needed drawings in our collections, discerning the location of drawings not in our holdings has always …
Posted in: Architecture
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
“Look! Look!! Look!!! Tintypes. Cheap. Beautiful. Lasting.” The sign posted by the entrance to an elaborate temporary booth at a 1903 county fair sums up in a handful of words much of the appeal of the simple tintype portrait photograph. From the latter half of the 19th century until nearly the middle of the 20th, …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Anything to Get the Shot
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
More than 1,000 color photographs of wild, wonderful West Virginia recently joined the ever-growing Carol M. Highsmith Archive in the Prints and Photographs Division. Taken in 2015, these photos are part of Highsmith’s multi-year plan to photograph every state in the U.S., with the Library of Congress as the home for this modern survey of …
Posted in: Photographs
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
The following is a guest post by Julie Stoner, Reference Technician in the Prints & Photographs Division. I like most sports; I’m just not very good at playing any of them. And as a much better spectator than participant, I always look forward to “March Madness,” a whirlwind month of basketball tournaments held by the …
Posted in: Photographs, Women's History
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
In about a week, residents and visitors in Washington, D.C., will witness the peak bloom of the cherry blossom trees given to the nation by Japan over 100 years ago. This annual profusion of pink and white blossoms on the trees encircling the Tidal Basin draws thousands of people. Many stroll along the water to …
Posted in: Photographs
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
Two previous posts in this series have focused on billboards promoting the “American Way” and signs enforcing racial segregation. Having been raised in the Deep South, I was accustomed to seeing religious signs during travels by car or pickup truck. Some signs bore succinct messages while others were far more word-filled, requiring a pullover to …
Posted in: Photographs
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
How have women and automobiles been depicted together? The image I conjured in my mind’s eye involved attractive women draped across a car in a purely decorative fashion–something like the image below, where the finer features of the bathing beauties are more on view than the Columbia Six Sport they are presumably helping to advertise. …
Posted in: Prints, Women's History