As Women’s History Month draws to a close, I was inspired to look back at the archives of the Picture This blog and to note the many ways we have celebrated the contributions of women in history. We have written posts about women making their mark, such as Shirley Chisholm and Amelia Earhart. And we …
I love postcards. I send them, collect them, and even make them. In my latest Flickr album, You’ve Got Mail, I included a 1939 photo of what was described as the “largest postcard ever sent through the mail.” A regular postcard cost one cent to mail in that year. I spot an interesting error in …
If you are in the D.C. area, please join us on Thursday, March 16, to celebrate Women’s History Month with Women in Photography, Stories from the Not an Ostrich Exhibition, from 6 to 8 p.m., in the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building. Photojournalist Sharon Farmer, the first woman and the first African American to be director …
The barber pole is an internationally recognized symbol of the barbering trade. In my latest Flickr album, Shave and a Haircut, you will see a small selection of images of barber poles from the Prints and Photographs Division. The collections hold many more photos than I could use in the album. This is the kind …
While searching our collections for a photo, I came across the following image and my natural curiosity required me to zoom in and read the text: Because I didn’t grow up in a region known for potato farming, it was surprising to learn of potato barrel rolling as an event! I absolutely had to find …
During the lifetime of the Picture This blog, we have published several dozen posts relating to some aspect of African American history. We have collected all of these posts under a single category for easy access here. In honor of Black History Month, we will highlight a few of those posts so you can revisit …
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, and Aliza Leventhal, Head, Technical Services, both of the Prints & Photographs Division. Every week our department organizes, houses, describes, and selectively digitizes a wide variety of pictures. Here are the highlights from the more than 125,000 items completed in the past six months. You …
In about 1920, a groundhog at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. was photographed poking his head out of his manmade burrow: There is no specific month and day given for this photo, but I see some icicles at the top of the image and perhaps snow in the foreground. So, I like to think …
This is my favorite photo from the Flickr album Toni Frissell Dog Photography Part One: It’s not my favorite because of the red Ford Country Sedan station wagon. It’s not my favorite because of the Mainbocher coat worn by C.Z. Guest. It’s my favorite because of the doggy in the window if you will. The …