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Category: Photographs

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

Camera and Locomotive: Two Tracks across the Continent: Andrew J. Russell’s Eye for the Land

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is the third in a series of guest posts by Micah Messenheimer, Assistant Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division, that discuss the parallel development of two technologies in the 19th century: railroads and photography. The catalysts for a transcontinental railroad lie in the increasing industrialization of the country and the rapid expansion …

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

International Tea Day

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 …

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

Double Take: Mirror Images

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

I did more than a double take when I saw the photograph below while searching in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog – I did a triple and maybe even a quadruple take! Once I convinced my brain of what I was seeing, I knew mirror images would be the theme of this installment of …

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

Camera and Locomotive: Two Tracks Across the Continent – Solomon Nunes Carvalho, Expedition Photographer

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is the second in a series of guest posts by Micah Messenheimer, Assistant Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division that discuss the parallel development of two technologies in the 19th century: railroads and photography. Picking up the story after John Plumbe’s successes as a daguerreotypist and his disappointments in plans for a …

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

The Past is Present: A Reflection on Civil War Veterans

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Naomi Subotnick, Liljenquist Fellow, Prints and Photographs Division, Summer 2017. This past summer, I worked as a Liljenquist Fellow in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, where I helped to digitize, catalog, and house recently acquired Civil War-era photographs. Working with the Liljenquist Family …

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

American Libraries: New Book

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 …

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

Caught Our Eyes: Autumn in Russia

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Melissa Lindberg, Reference Librarian, Prints and Photographs Division Now that autumn has begun, it’s natural to look forward to its visual splendor. Searching the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog for visual inspiration to match the brisk change in the air, I stumbled upon this autumnal scene from 1911 …