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Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The gentleman with the long pipe and the colorful garments (right) points to a document. What is it? Take a closer look (below). It does not appear to be a letter or excerpt from a text. Some letters are recognizable as part of the Roman alphabet: I can see an A, an H, a J, …
Posted in: News & Events, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
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 …
Posted in: Architecture, Drawings, HABS/HAER/HALS, News & Events
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
This photograph of a shop window taken in 1942 speaks eloquently to what it means to have pride in both your heritage as well as in the country you’ve chosen as your home. Artifacts of the Jewish faith fill the window, studied carefully by a young girl. (Her gaze appears caught by the book entitled …
Posted in: Jewish American History, News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
As a sixth grader, I didn’t give much thought to the man whose portrait hung in the front hall of my school. In my memory, he’s holding peanuts in his hand, looking calm as I scurried by on my way to class. Of course, I knew he was George Washington Carver. The brass plaque on …
Posted in: African American History, News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
One of my favorite buildings in Washington, D.C. is the Pension Building, which is now the National Building Museum. Between the grandeur of the hall and the beautiful brick exterior with its carved frieze, it stands out in a city of grand buildings. While still under construction in 1885, it was also the site for …
Posted in: Architecture, News & Events, Photographs, Series: Caught Our Eyes
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Every December, the Geminid Meteor Shower fills the evening sky with shooting stars (meteors). The first step to enjoying the shower, which will peak the evening of December 13 and into the morning of the 14th, is to locate the constellation of Gemini in the night sky, as the meteors will appear to radiate from …
Posted in: News & Events, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
I love the Olympics. I love the competition, the ceremonies, the sportsmanship. My earliest personal experience with a festival of games was on a pretty small scale: the annual Field Day in grade school. My favorite event wasn’t the water balloon toss or the three-legged race. It was the ultimate battle between classes, Tug of …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Photographing the Golden Gate Bridge is a challenge on many levels – quite literally! Nearly 9,000 feet in length, and rising almost 800 feet into the air, it doesn’t pose easily for the camera. I can only assume from looking at the images of the Golden Gate Bridge in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Nearly half a million people lived in San Francisco, California on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The majority of them were fast asleep when the world began to shake apart. At 5:12 a.m. the city was struck by a massive earthquake, one which modern science estimates at anywhere from 7.8 to 8.2 on the Richter scale. …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs