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Archive: 2017 (17 Posts)

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

Camera and Locomotive: Two Tracks across the Continent: Andrew J. Russell’s Eye for the Land

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is the third in a series of guest posts by Micah Messenheimer, Assistant Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division, that discuss the parallel development of two technologies in the 19th century: railroads and photography. The catalysts for a transcontinental railroad lie in the increasing industrialization of the country and the rapid expansion …

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

Camera and Locomotive: Two Tracks Across the Continent – Solomon Nunes Carvalho, Expedition Photographer

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is the second in a series of guest posts by Micah Messenheimer, Assistant Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division that discuss the parallel development of two technologies in the 19th century: railroads and photography. Picking up the story after John Plumbe’s successes as a daguerreotypist and his disappointments in plans for a …

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

The Past is Present: A Reflection on Civil War Veterans

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Naomi Subotnick, Liljenquist Fellow, Prints and Photographs Division, Summer 2017. This past summer, I worked as a Liljenquist Fellow in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, where I helped to digitize, catalog, and house recently acquired Civil War-era photographs. Working with the Liljenquist Family …

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

Caught Our Eyes: Autumn in Russia

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Melissa Lindberg, Reference Librarian, Prints and Photographs Division Now that autumn has begun, it’s natural to look forward to its visual splendor. Searching the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog for visual inspiration to match the brisk change in the air, I stumbled upon this autumnal scene from 1911 …

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

Artwork by Chicano Movement “Artivist” Mario Torero

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division. When Juan Felipe Herrera was exploring Library of Congress collections to share through his Poet Laureate project El Jardín (The Garden): La Casa de Colores, he was interested to learn what we have by Chicano Movement artists. We …

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

Camera and Locomotive: Two Tracks across the Continent – John Plumbe’s Dream

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is the first in a series of guest posts by Micah Messenheimer, Assistant Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division. Two defining technologies of nineteenth-century America—railroads and photography—largely developed in parallel and brought about drastic changes to how people understood time and space. Trains bridged considerable distances with great speed; photographs brought past …

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

Whistler’s Etching Needle on View in “The Art of Etching: Masterpieces by James McNeill Whistler”

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division and Linda Stiber Morenus, Special Assistant to the Director of Scholarly & Educational Programs and longtime paper conservator. Known for his credo “Art for Art’s Sake,” American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903) was a virtuoso etcher whose …