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Posted by: Melissa Lindberg
Frederick Douglass was a firm believer in the power of pictures. In an 1861 lecture called “Pictures and Progress” by the press, Douglass wondered why photography pioneer Louis Daguerre was not more frequently compared with inventors of such vaunted technologies as the telegraph or the steamboat: “the great father of our modern pictures is seldom …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs
Posted by: Melissa Lindberg
Below is an interview with Jon Eaker, Reference Librarian in the Prints & Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. Melissa: Thanks for agreeing to an interview, Jon. Can you fill us in on your background, and what led you to become a reference librarian here in the Prints & Photographs Division? Jon: Well, I’ve …
Posted in: Drawings, Photographs, Posters, Prints, Series: Behind the Scenes
Posted by: Melissa Lindberg
The Prints & Photographs Division regularly receives questions about how to find pictures related to the Great Migration – when millions of African Americans, many of whom lived in the rural American South, permanently relocated to cities to the north and west. These individuals had many reasons for leaving their homes, but they were spurred …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs