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Posted by: Melissa Lindberg
In a recent search for a portrait of a different judge in the C. M. Bell Studio collection, reference librarian Jon Eaker came upon an image with the title “Gibbs, Judge M.W.” Struck by the man’s image, and wanting to learn more about him, Jon did some reading and learned that Mifflin Wistar Gibbs was …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
“…the great success of Mr. Bell is due to his suavity of manner coupled with high artistic ability, and to the gentlemanly deportment observed by his corps of assistants. The rule is, politeness to everybody.” –Photographic Times and American Photographer, Sept. 1, 1883. From the 1870s until the 1910s, tens of thousands of people in …
Posted in: Photographs, Portraits
![Untitled photo, possibly related to: Washington, D.C. Jewal Mazique [i.e. Jewel], worker at the Library of Congress, getting a late snack. Photo by John Collier, Jr., 1942. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d20264](https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/files/2022/04/service-pnp-fsa-8d20000-8d20200-8d20264v.jpg)
Posted by: Melissa Lindberg
The following is an interview with Barbara Orbach Natanson, former Head of the Prints & Photographs Reading Room. Melissa: Can you tell us about your background, and what roles you played at the Library of Congress before you retired this past December? Barbara: I first came to the Library of Congress in 1980 to do …
Posted in: Photographs, Prints, Series: Behind the Scenes, Women's History
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Taking a portrait alongside your favorite feline is no easy task. Cats are notoriously (but delightfully) finicky about following directions, so getting one to sit still for a portrait can be a tall order. Despite that, our collections contain many examples of people posing with their cats – or at least attempting to do so! …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Profiling Portraits
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
No one relishes being made fun of, especially when celebrating a birthday. But Susan B. Anthony, who was born February 15, 1820, will perhaps not turn over in her grave if we acknowledge just how prominently she appeared in cartoons during the years she actively campaigned for and wrote about the history of women’s suffrage. …
Posted in: Cartoons, Women's History
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
No, this is not a post bemoaning the sultry heat of late summer (sometimes referred to, apparently for astronomical reasons, as the “dog days”). The Prints & Photographs Division’s dog days are prompted by the realization that various staff members highlighted portraits of dogs (some with accompanying humans) on the division’s “Caught Our Eyes” wall, …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Caught Our Eyes
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
With holdings of close to 16 million images, there are always new discoveries to be made in the Prints and Photographs Division. When collections become easier to search through digitization, staff are the first to go digging through the “new” images like kids in a visual candy store. During my exploration of the over 25,000 …
Posted in: Photographs, Portraits, Series: Anything to Get the Shot
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Beverly Brannan, Curator of Photography, Prints & Photographs Division. African American women as well as men assumed civic responsibilities in the decades after the Civil War. William Henry Richards (1856-1941) was active in several organizations that promoted civil rights and civil liberties for African Americans at the end …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs, Portraits, Women's History