The following is guest post by Micah Messenheimer, Assistant Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division. Over the span of nearly forty years, John Margolies took more than eleven thousand color slide photographs of vernacular structures across America’s highways, byways, and main streets. Traversing the country, he was drawn to the architecture that came to …
During my search through our collections for interesting hats, bonnets, caps, and all manner of headgear for my most recent Flickr album, I found one hat that most certainly was never meant to sit on anyone’s head. When it opened in 1954 as the “Premium Tex” gas station, this red hat captured drivers’ imaginations on …
Porches have many uses. They can serve as a gathering place for socializing with acquaintances, friends, or family. Or they can provide the backdrop for solitary activities like reading or people-watching. As structures, they can provide visual interest. And they come in all shapes and sizes. This photograph of men gathered on the porch of …
One of my favorite ways to explore the vast collections of the Prints & Photographs Division is to look for connections between multiple collections that span different time periods. Quite by accident while searching for another photo in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, I found this fascinating 1942 photo of a stop …
On a recent trip to Norway’s capital, I kept my camera busy. History emanates from Oslo’s many sights, from its nearby stave church to its market squares, and a delight of my visit was considering the life of the city’s built landscape through images in the photographic holdings of the Prints & Photographs (P&P) Division. …
I look at a lot of images in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) when I am making selections for a Flickr album. This was certainly the case when working on my latest set – If The Shoe Fits. There are always many images that don’t make it to the final group. In preparing …
The barber pole is an internationally recognized symbol of the barbering trade. In my latest Flickr album, Shave and a Haircut, you will see a small selection of images of barber poles from the Prints and Photographs Division. The collections hold many more photos than I could use in the album. This is the kind …
Millions of Americans will hit the road this week to spend Thanksgiving with friends and family in other parts of the country. Some will be lucky enough to travel down byways and scenic routes to reach their destination. Others will have to be patient as they slog through heavy highway traffic with thousands of other …
The ability to select how I will view a hefty set of search results in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog is one of the features I love about the catalog. There are three choices: List, Gallery, and Grid, offered at the upper right of the search results page. The default view is List view. …
