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Category: Acquisitions

Teenage boy wearing a denim jacket styles younger boy's hair in kitchen, with stove top visible in background and sink and counter visible in foreground and at right.

Ryan White: Through the Lens of Taro Yamasaki

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Adam M. Silvia, Curator of Photography in the Prints & Photographs Division. On August 18th, 1990, the U.S. Congress passed the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, which allocated federal funds to support the treatment of AIDS.  To commemorate the 34th anniversary of this legislation and celebrate its …

Three people stand talking by tables covered with art prints.

Pluralist Printmaking: The In Unison Portfolio

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

The famously democratic art of printmaking is a perfect medium for experimentation and innovation, creative collaborations, and the fluid sharing of ideas among artists and audiences. All of these qualities shine brightly in the artist print portfolio called: In Unison: 20 Washington, DC Artists. This post celebrates the recent acquisition of this portfolio, published by the Millennium Arts Salon in 2010-2011.

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

New Year, New to See

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

The following is a guest post by Hanna Soltys, Reference Librarian, with contributions by Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Arts, and Micah Messenheimer, Curator of Photography, all of the Prints and Photographs Division. To kick off the New Year, the Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientations for January 2022 look at newly …

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

Geppi Gems Exhibit: Highlights from the Stephen A. Geppi Collection at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Arts, Prints and Photographs Division. Popeye, Superman, Wonder Woman, Black Panther – some cartoon characters have become both instantly and internationally recognizable, but they didn’t get their start on television or in the movies, but rather on the pages …

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

Sultana’s Dream: Linocut Series by Chitra Ganesh

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Charlotte Giles, Reference Librarian, Asian Division. In a new acquisition by the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, Chitra Ganesh, a visual artist based in Brooklyn, retells the 1905 Indian feminist utopian essay, “Sultana’s Dream” by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat, but in the style of a graphic novel …

Print shows five witches flying on a single broom over a rural landscape.

An Acquisition Adventure: “Loco Foco Witches Laying a Spell Over the Country”

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Arts, Prints and Photographs Division. “Exceptionally rare and believed to be previously unknown,” in the seller’s letter intrigued me. On offer, an 1836 anti-Martin Van Buren woodcut print, depicting Van Buren as a witch and riding the coattails of …

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

Flickr Commons: A 13th Anniversary and the COVID-19 American Experiences

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Adam Silvia, Curator of Photography, Prints & Photographs Division. Thirteen years ago, on January 16th, 2008, Flickr announced The Commons, a space where libraries and museums can share photographs with the public, and the public, in turn, can share its collective knowledge with these cultural heritage archives. The …