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Archive: 2025 (9 Posts)

Mid-century style classroom full of students looking ahead to teacher and another student standing at chalkboard.

Finding Pictures: Back to School

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

Join Reference Specialist Ryan Brubacher online on Wednesday, July 16 at 03:00pm EDT as she explores school-related images from the collections. Showing a variety of perspectives and spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the shared images will feature buildings and classrooms, sports, naptime, students engaged in artistic and scientific learning, and more. The images in this post provide a preview.

A man stands making ice cream and looks down toward child sitting on the ground in front of a two story residential structure.

Ice Cream for Summer Relief: A Prequel

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

Continuing in the same vein as last week’s post, today we are looking at the people, technologies, and skills involved with making ice cream. The post will incorporate both photographs and printed matter from the collection and will focus on home production of ice cream.

Two men stand on front steps of building.

Finding Pictures: Shawn Walker – Reflections

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

Join Curator Adam Silvia and renowned photographer Shawn Walker for a Finding Pictures webinar where they will debut their documentary interview on Walker’s life in photography, featuring images from the Shawn Walker Photograph Collection held in the Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. A founding member of the Kamoinge Workshop, a highly esteemed collective of Black photographers in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, Walker reflects on his youth growing up in Harlem, his journey to becoming a photographer, his experiences photographing in Cuba and Guyana and his creativity as an artist. Silvia and Walker will take questions from attendees afterwards.

Close-up view of statue of golden flame, with New York City skyline in background.

Our Best Resource for Historic American Architecture, Engineering, and Landscapes

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. Do you need ideas for fixing up an old house? Close-up views of the Statue of Liberty? The dimensions of a Spanish mission? All that information and more is ready for you in the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection with 450,000 drawings, photographs, and …

Colorful postcard shows Southern Pacific Railroad car carrying larger-than-life lemon with printed Chinese or Japanese characters translated as January 1, New Year.

Finding Pictures: Postcards – Wish You Were Here!

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

Sample some images from the Library of Congress postcard collections in this post as we prepare to host a webinar on April 16 featuring a broad selection of postcards from the late 19th century forward. We hope this quick introduction will encourage you to watch the live event – or listen to the recording if you aren’t able to make it!

Design for product logo/label showing an elaborate dragon perched on a rectangular platform, all surrounded by administrative text.

Whimsy and Commerce: Magical Beings in the U.S. Patent Office Trademark Collection

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

In a recent post, we introduced a slew of newly processed or digitized collections. This week we are highlighting a newly available and graphically fun collection, the U.S. Patent Office Trademarks—brands, logos, and images registered between 1869 and 1911. We will do this through a selection of whimsical images featuring magical and mythical creatures such as fairies, dragons, mermaids, and gnomes.

Color lithographic print shows chocolates artfully placed on top of silver stand, with box of chocolates to the left and a picture of a woman's profile on the front.

Ready for Research: Announcing New Collections and Additional Digital Images

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. Our talented teams in the Prints & Photographs Division (P&P) organized and described 250,000 pictures during the past year. The processing teams completed several new collections for you to enjoy from a distance or examine in person, and digitization staff added some …

Row of four telephone booths, each with a woman inside talking on the phone. A pinup-style photo is visible above each booth.

Making a Connection

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

For some of us, it’s hard to remember a time when we didn’t have portable communication devices that fit in our pockets — when a phone call required access to a wired line. I recently came across a photograph with a phone booth in it and I struggled to remember the last time I had …

View of kitchen/dining space showing table with dishes on it on left, oven on right and staircase in background.

Timeliness and Timelessness, or Spot the Wall Calendar

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Kate Phillips, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division.  As our name suggests, here in the Prints & Photographs (P&P) division, we collect both prints AND photographs. It’s always fun when items work across categories and photographs speak to print culture.   This month, as we’ve turned the page …