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Archive: 2020 (53 Posts)

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

Revisiting Rights-Free: WPA Posters—Perennial Favorites on Enduring Themes

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The Prints & Photographs Division’s collection of posters produced for the Work Projects Administration (WPA) in the 1930s and 1940s is one of many highlights among the division’s extensive poster holdings. These posters touch on a number of themes, including public health and occupational safety, travel and tourism, recreation and educational programs and World War …

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

Herb Block and Picasso?: One Cartoonist Connects with the Fine Art World

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Martha H. Kennedy, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Arts, Prints and Photographs Division. Herb Block (aka Herblock) (1909-2001), legendary cartoonist for the Washington Post and four-time Pulitzer Prize winner, probably never met Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), but he did admire this artist and his art. He also admired, …

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

Letterpress Artist Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.’s Rosa Parks Series

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

This guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division, highlights posters that complement the New York Poster House exhibition “The Letterpress Posters of Amos Kennedy” (October 8, 2020–January 3, 2021), curated by Angelina Lippert. Detroit-based letterpress artist Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. wields wood type and ink in ways that can …

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

Rediscovering Drive-Ins with the Vogel Collection

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Gillian Mahoney, Technical Services Technician in the Prints & Photographs Division. Are drive-in theaters making a comeback? Because of the current pandemic, many are seeking socially distant yet still sociable activities, and drive-in movie theaters offer a perfect combination. In the 1950s and 60s drive-ins were wildly popular, …

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

Great Photographs: New Issue of LCM

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints and Photographs Division. I could look at photographs all day long. Contemporary or historical, black-and-white or color, provocative or soothing, portrait or landscape. All kinds of images can draw my interest, and some photos have the power to stop me in my tracks. These …

Miss Janette [i.e., Jeannette] Rankin. Photo by National Photo Company, between 1909 and 1920. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.20183

Jeannette Rankin: First Woman Elected to Congress

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

On November 7, 1916, nearly four years before the Nineteenth Amendment gave American women the right to vote nationally, Jeannette Rankin was elected to represent Montana in the United States House of Representatives. Images of Rankin in the Prints & Photographs Division’s collections portray her both in her role as congresswoman and as activist for …