Last week, we celebrated the 17th birthday of The Commons on Flickr. The Commons started as a partnership between Flickr and the Library of Congress, and has grown to include tens of thousands of images from over 100 different institutions. In recent years, we have been selecting images from our collections to share in our Flickr account through thematic albums. The latest album is Turn on the Light, compiled by my colleague, reference librarian Gillian Mahoney. The set includes views of lamps and lights and some even depict a person in the act of turning the light on to illuminate a space.
A few dramatic light fixtures photographed as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) didn’t make it into the final album on Flickr. They are too fascinating to keep in the dark, so please enjoy!





Learn More:
- Explore the Library’s thousands of images shared on Flickr, where users can comment and contribute information.
- Read some of our many Picture This blog posts featuring Flickr.
- View hundreds more images of lamps in the HABS collection.