The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints and Photographs Division. One of the joys of working with the Library’s vast and varied collections is the potential for making extraordinary discoveries. This is one of those stories. Please help us welcome a new treasure to the Prints & Photographs …
Tomorrow many households in the U.S. will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. Holidays–particularly food-centered ones–conjure up many personal associations. They also tend to inspire evocative pictures. Turkey in many shapes and forms predominate in the array of images that turn up when you search the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog for “Thanksgiving.” But my family …
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought on July 1-3, 1863, at a small town in Pennsylvania. The fierce fighting was a major turning point in the American Civil War, with an estimated 50,000 casualties—dead, wounded, and missing Union and Confederate soldiers. …
Some people contend that great art is distinguished in the attention the artist paid to the most minute details. Artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) may be a good case in point in that he even turned his creative energy to the way in which he signed his work. H. Barbara Weinberg of the Department of American …
The following is a guest post by Gay Colyer, Digital Library Specialist, Prints & Photographs Division. While reviewing Civil War photographs of the Union’s Mississippi River Fleet (LOT 4183), I came across a type of ship that I hadn’t seen before. I’ve long admired the efficient design of the single or double turreted ironclads. In …
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. The Library of Congress and the Heritage Documentation Programs at the National Park Service have named the first winners of a new prize for the best single-sheet drawing prepared to the standards of the Historic American Buildings Survey, Historic American Engineering …
The following is a guest post by Martha H. Kennedy, Curator of Popular & Applied Graphic Art. The renowned illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) is best known for creating the Gibson Girl, that dazzling paragon of feminine beauty—with a flawless face, steadfast gaze, small-waisted yet voluptuous form, that tall beguiling being who radiated grace no …