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Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Some photographers’ willingness to do anything to get the shot came to mind when I saw this 1908 photo. Clearly, the man holding this large camera (imagine running with that in hand!) was determined to capture what is likely a billowing cloud of volcanic ash. Taken long before the benefit of zoom lenses, both the …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Anything to Get the Shot
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
When I ran across this image recently, it struck me just how much parades and flags go together and, furthermore, how much people have experimented with displaying enormous flags. In this case, the flag was probably better seen from the photographer’s vantage point than by spectators on the ground. As is so often the case, …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Caught Our Eyes
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Gay Colyer, Digital Library Specialist, Prints & Photographs Division. We need your help to identify 68 photos of historic structures. They’re posted in a Flickr album called “Mystery Houses,” so that it’s easy to add your notes.* The photographer, Frances Benjamin Johnston, did leave a basic clue for …
Posted in: Architecture, Flickr, Photographs
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The following is a guest post for the Feast Your Eyes series by Kristen Sosinski, Processing Technician, Prints and Photographs Division. Calling all ovo-lacto vegetarians,* this blog post is for you! I recently stumbled across a photo of a baked bean loaf. Yes, that’s right, a baked bean loaf! The catalog record informed me that …
Posted in: Photographs, Posters, Series: Feast Your Eyes
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Clearly the ladies below are determined to get in their game of Mah-Jongg! A photographer for the National Photo Company snapped a photo of this inventive method of taking a game on the go while still enjoying a cooling dip in the water: A recent blog post about board games focused on the games themselves, …
Posted in: Photographs, Prints, Series: Caught Our Eyes
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
George Washington delivered the country’s first inaugural address 225 years ago on April 30th, 1789. Just as the legends pertaining to Washington have grown and persisted since his lifetime, so has the iconography. Throughout the years, artists have provided their own conceptions of the first presidential inauguration, as in this print published in 1849, which …
Posted in: Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
This curious picture of a woman mountaineer recently caught my eye as I happened upon it in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. My first thought was: “What is the Wicked Witch of the West doing traversing a high mountain pass in the Yukon Territory?” But, this playful impression was soon supplanted by two more germane …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Caught Our Eyes
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
Pictures relating to food and drink often place the fare alluringly front and center, drawing the eyes in an attempt to spur thoughts of pleasurable tastes and smells. But what about pictures that attempt to communicate about the absence or deliberate avoidance of food or drink? How do they get across their message? Pictures about …
Posted in: Cartoons, Photographs, Posters, Series: Feast Your Eyes
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Today we mark the birth of British photographer, inventor and innovator Eadweard Muybridge. Born April 9, 1830, Muybridge was one of the early pioneers of photography, whose work documenting the movements of animals and humans continues to inform and influence today. What the human eye could not capture at the time, Muybridge’s series of cameras, …
Posted in: Photographs