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Posted by: Lara Szypszak
It might seem obvious that traffic control development paralleled the growing use of automobiles. Especially after World War I, an increase in traffic created a need for more systematic signals. The first traffic light in the United States was installed in 1914 in Cleveland and the first interconnected signal system was introduced in Salt Lake …
Posted in: Photographs
Posted by: Lara Szypszak
The following is the fifth in a series of guest posts by Micah Messenheimer, Associate Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division, that discuss the parallel development of two technologies in the 19th century: railroads and photography. Capturing the entirety of the Central Pacific Railroad from 1864–69, photographer Alfred Hart (1816–1908) traveled east from Sacramento, …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Camera and Locomotive
Posted by: Lara Szypszak
Whenever I leave the urban landscape and go out driving in the country, certain things tend to catch my eye. One particular scene that always makes my head turn is a red barn on a hillside. The pop of color often draws me in. I have always wondered, though: Why red? It turns out, the …
Posted in: Photographs, Posters
Posted by: Lara Szypszak
Did you hear? April 30 is International Jazz Day! So I thought I’d search the Prints and Photographs collections to get an idea of what we have to represent the celebrated music genre- that thing we call jazz! The cartoon drawing below epitomizes the exuberance and dynamic feeling of the music! There are many gems …
Posted in: Drawings, Photographs
Posted by: Lara Szypszak
There is a well-known quote by Pablo Picasso, which goes like this: Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Perhaps these words appeal to me because they touch on the delightful imagination a child possesses, and how freely that creativity is expressed through art with …
Posted in: Photographs, Posters
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: 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: Lara Szypszak
We recently posted about the newly digitized photographs from the American National Red Cross Collection, sharing an overview and selections from this vibrant and massive resource. I took a personal interest in these newly uploaded images as they represent a great addition to our accessible corpus of images of Poland. Not only does this collection …
Posted in: Photographs, World War I
Posted by: Lara Szypszak
The following is a joint post by Lara Szypszak and Julie Stoner, Reference Technicians, Prints and Photographs Division. There are many ways to run across fantastic images in Prints and Photographs Division holdings, often in the course of carrying out day-to-day tasks. When digital technology came along in the 1990s, the Prints and Photographs Division …
Posted in: Photographs