
Detail of Library of Congress Flickr albums page. Sept. 2020.
While many Prints & Photographs Division staff are working separately from their home offices, dens, and living rooms, pictures never fail to bring us together. In the waning days of summer, it’s a pleasure to immerse ourselves in the pictures that we gathered in response to seek-and-find challenges offered by reference specialist Jan Grenci. We shared the results in two new Flickr albums.
The Beaches & Boardwalks album selections remind us that sun, sand, surf, and the occasional hot dog or beach spectacle have long offered diversion.
I enjoyed the contrast between the the well-covered beach visitors in the background of this picture and the relatively bare-skinned lifeguard, still retaining the formality of an official cap:

A Life guard, Brighton Beach, N.Y. Photo by Detroit Publishing Co., between 1901 and 1906. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/det.4a05566
This one gives a whole new meaning to “well-covered”:

Redding, California. Youngsters at the beach. Photo by Russell Lee, 1942. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8c32160
Others that offered me vicarious pleasure:

The Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth–The great Coney Island water carnival… Poster, copyrighted 1898. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.54819
The You Say Tomato album illustrates that tomatoes have inspired documentation and artistic renderings of all kinds, perhaps often (but not always) fueled by their luscious color:

Rehabilitation client and wife with one day’s tomato pick off coast of Beaufort, South Carolina. Photo by Carl Mydans, 1936. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b29054

Tomatoes at the Yauco Cooperative Growers’ Association, Puerto Rico. Photo by Jack Delano, 1942. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a34049

Kavkaz. Gruzin – torgovets pomidorami (Caucasus. Georgian – tomato trader). Photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, between 1905 and 1915. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/prokc.21227
And who can resist a slightly apprehensive marching tomato?

War gardens over the top. The seeds of victory insure the fruits of peace. Poster by Maginel Wright Enright, 1919? //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.50988
Whether or not expanses of sea and sand or marching tomatoes catch your fancy, stay tuned! We’re busy gathering pictures on more themes for upcoming Flickr albums.
Learn More
- View the Beaches & Boardwalks and You Say Tomato Flickr albums, or select among the many other albums we have compiled.
- If you want more pictures on these these themes, wade into the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog to view images relating to bathing beaches, boardwalks and surfing and sample an array of images relating to fruits (of which the tomato is one!) and vegetables.
- Read about the Library of Congress Flickr project and review some of our previous blog posts highlighting our Flickr activities.
- Explore a new Flickr activity we launched this month through the Library of Congress blog post, “Library Seeks Pictures of Pandemic Experiences”
September 17, 2020 at 2:27 pm
Love these! Especially “War gardens over the top.” This is how it seems anthropomorphized fruits and vegetables would react to humans about to eat them – very unlike those dancing California raisins.
October 14, 2020 at 7:11 pm
Wonderful stuff! Could these sorts of LC-held illustrated materials be released to the public occasionally as a regular feature?
October 15, 2020 at 6:55 am
If I’m understanding correctly that you’re asking if we could issue the sets of images regularly on our site, we can certainly consider that. Regularly appearing on the Library’s site are “Free to Use and Reuse” sets of images (each set appears first on the Library’s home page), featuring a wonderful variety of subjects and media. Each of the images we feature in the Flickr albums are also available individually through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. We can also think about making the images retrievable as a set of results in the catalog. Thanks for the suggestion!