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Archive: 2021 (52 Posts)

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

Slice Up the Fruitcake

Posted by: Jan Grenci

This week, we’re looking at something I don’t like very much – fruitcake. This seasonal sweet treat has never appealed to me. But while preparing for a recent Flickr album featuring images of butter and baking, I stumbled upon three fruitcake photos that caught my eye and deserved detailed views. First up, a Russell Lee …

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

A Bicycle Challenge in the Nation’s Capital

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

This past year a researcher called to our attention a series of photographs of children posing with bicycles in the National Photo Company Collection. Below is one of the images, which came to the Library with a somewhat mysterious title: “Times girl on bicycle.” Documentation obtained by the researcher through the Library of Congress’s Chronicling …

Documenting Historic American Landscapes – Challenge Accepted!

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

The following is a guest post by Ryan Brubacher, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division.  In late November, the winners of the 2021 HALS Challenge were announced. The announcement offers a good opportunity to highlight the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) collection, including the historical reports found within this collection, as well as the National …

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

Ready for Research: Contemporary Photography Donated by the Annenberg Foundation

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Aliza Leventhal, Head, Technical Services, Prints & Photographs Division. When the Annenberg Space for Photography closed in June 2020, they offered the Library of Congress more than 900 high quality prints from ten of their exhibitions. We responded enthusiastically to this rare opportunity to add work by 329 …

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

Through the Eyes of an Angel: New York Photos by Anthony Angel

Posted by: Jan Grenci

Earlier this year, the Anthony Angel Collection became available for research. The collection contains around 60,000 black-and-white photographs of New York City, chiefly Manhattan, taken between 1949 and 1967. Angel was born Angelo A. Rizzuto (1906-1967) and listed in the 1910 U.S. Census as Angelino Rizzuto, as Tony Rizzuto in 1920, and as Angelo A. …

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

Adding Context: Photographs of Japanese Americans Imprisoned During World War II

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Mitsuko Brooks, an Archives, History and Heritage Advanced (AHHA) intern at the Library of Congress. Brooks is in her final semester as a student at Queens College (CUNY) working towards a Master of Library Science degree with a certificate in Archives and Preservation of Cultural Materials. This fall …

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

New Research Guides: Artists’ Fine Prints at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division. A longer version will appear in On Paper: Journal of the Washington Print Club (Fall 2021). Like poetry, literature, and music—visual art can reflect history, society, politics, and culture in uniquely powerful ways. Artists’ prints typically exist in …