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Posted by: Lara Szypszak
Settle in for a good strong cuppa because December 15 is International Tea Day! Tea drinking began thousands of years ago in China and made its way west to Europe through Dutch trade in the sixteenth century. By the nineteenth century, the East India Company had a monopoly on the tea trade between China and …
Posted in: Drawings, News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. You can find libraries at the heart of many different communities, from the center of a town or a college campus to a shared toolbox at a construction site. The new book American Libraries, written by architectural historian Kenneth Breisch, takes …
Posted in: Drawings, News & Events, Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Lara Szypszak
September 22 is World Car Free Day, an annual event when participants around the world set aside their car keys and find alternative methods for getting to work. This annual observance goes back to the 1970s, and gained more ground in the 1990s to coincide with the European Union’s “In Town Without My Car” campaign. …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
“Thousands of residents stood with necks craned and peered wide-eyed through smudged glass as the moon sped between the sun and earth, gradually shutting off the bright morning light. From President Coolidge to the urchins with bundles of papers under their arms, the city marvelled at the awesome but magnificent sight.” - The Washington Post, …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division and Linda Stiber Morenus, Special Assistant to the Director of Scholarly & Educational Programs and longtime paper conservator. Known for his credo “Art for Art’s Sake,” American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903) was a virtuoso etcher whose …
Posted in: News & Events, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Most of the United States will “spring forward” this weekend, as we enter Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. – which will immediately become 3:00 a.m. – Sunday morning. Many of us have never known a time when we didn’t go through the biannual ritual of springing forward an hour in the spring, and falling …
Posted in: News & Events, Posters, World War I
Posted by: Lara Szypszak
I find one of the remarkable things about portraiture is the ability to observe individuals just like us in a time so different. A sparkle in the eyes or tilt of the head can feel so familiar. Whether it be the portrait of a family member or of someone with a common cultural heritage, the …
Posted in: African American History, News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Lara Szypszak
Sometimes I come across a photo in our collections that just tickles me pink, but also makes me want to learn more. One such photo of two dancing dames alongside a congressman led me to pictures of the Charleston dance craze taking the nation’s capitol by storm and sent me digging deeper in the hopes …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs