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Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, declaring that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” This decision was pivotal to the struggle for racial desegregation in the United States. A year later, in May 1955, Thomas O’Halloran, on assignment for U.S. News & …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
This image, found while browsing for bridges in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, lured a colleague in for a closer look. I was glancing over her shoulder, and the photograph drew me in and stirred my curiosity, too. We were struck by the clarity and beautiful geometry of the image, one of the recently …
Posted in: Architecture, Photographs, Series: Caught Our Eyes, Visual literacy
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
In May 1941, Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographer Jack Delano captured the May Day Pageant in Siloam, a small town in Greene County, Georgia. Today, I feature two photographs of the day’s events. First, above, is a procession of girls dancing in fancy costumes, looking like a group of flitting butterflies. The second image, below, …
Posted in: Photographs
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
The anniversary of Earth Day this past weekend (coupled with some gorgeous spring days!) has me thinking about being outdoors more. From there my mind jumps to ideal places to explore, bringing national parks to the surface in my daydreams. Finally, the thought of national parks reminds me that Prints & Photographs has been adding …
Posted in: 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
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Who are the two little French boys that were dropped, almost naked, from the deck of the sinking Titanic into the arms of survivors in a lifeboat? From which place in France did they come and to which place in the new world were they bound? There is not one iota of information to be …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. When house and garden historian Sam Watters first learned about Frances B. Johnston’s color garden photos from the early 1900s, he e-mailed us right away. An appointment was soon arranged to show him these fascinating but uncataloged “magic lantern slides.” We …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs, Researcher Stories
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
As I write this post on March 29th, Washington’s cherry trees have already bloomed . . . and gone . . . and another rite of spring has passed as well: baseball’s spring training! The 2012 Major League Baseball season commenced yesterday in Tokyo as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Oakland Athletics (who got their …
Posted in: Photographs
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
We are still savoring the comments visitors to the National Book Festival offered last fall while viewing sample photographs from our collections. This visitor’s comments seem particularly apt as we continue to celebrate Women’s History Month. The commenter recognized the well-known subject of the photograph, educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune served …
Posted in: African American History, News & Events, Photographs