Notice
Due to the temporary shutdown of the federal government beginning midnight, October 1, all Library of Congress buildings are closed and all public events are canceled until further notice. More.

Top of page

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 …