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Category: Researcher Stories

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

Remembering Researcher Joe Manning, Who Helped Us Remember So Many Others

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The world lost an inspired and inspiring researcher last April, when Joe Manning died. Manning devoted many years to researching people depicted in historical photographs, especially those found in National Child Labor Committee and Farm Security Administration collections. He leaves, however, a rich legacy, not only of his findings but also of his techniques for …

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

A Small Texas Town on a March Afternoon in 1940

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

The following is a guest post by Mary Jane Appel, photo historian and author of the recently published Russell Lee: A Photographer’s Life and Legacy (Liveright, in association with the Library of Congress, 2021). When Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographer Russell Lee drove through the small town of San Marcos, Texas on a sunny afternoon …

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

Exploration and Discovery: Ernest Benecke Photographs in the Richard Morris Hunt Collection

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Mari Nakahara, Curator of Architecture, Design & Engineering, with Micah Messenheimer, Curator of Photography, Prints & Photographs Division, talking with researcher David R. Hanlon. I am always grateful when researchers discover treasures in unprocessed collections, the contents of which have often not been fully explored. Professor David R. …

Frances Benjamin Johnston, full-length self-portrait dressed as a man. Photo (albumen silver print) by Frances Benjamin Johnston, between 1890 and 1900. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.04884

Frances Benjamin Johnston’s Hampton Album: A Researcher’s Exploration

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Micah Messenheimer, Curator of Photography, Prints & Photographs Division. Conversations with visiting researchers that lead to new appreciation for the many interconnections among Library of Congress collections are one of the pleasures of my job as a photography curator. The following interview was done with Jane Pierce, Carl …

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

The Faces of Child Labor

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

The oftentimes heartbreaking photos taken by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee from 1908 to 1924 demand we look more closely at the faces of young laborers and the conditions under which they worked, such as this young spinner in a Georgia cotton mill: The photos’ impact continues to this day, adding a …

Les incommodités de Janvier 1786, Publish'd as the Act directs Feby. 20th, 1786, by H. Humphrey, No. 51 New Bond Stt., Etching by Inigo Barlow. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ds.07535

Researcher Stories: Mining a Royal Collection

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is an interview with researcher Kate Heard, Senior Curator of Prints at Royal Collection Trust. Melissa: Thank you for participating in this interview. We always enjoy having you in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room, and we’re delighted to have this opportunity. Could you start by describing where you work? Kate: I’m Senior …

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

Renaissance and Baroque Color: Researching Chiaroscuro Woodcuts at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division. Among the Library’s treasures is a special collection of Italian chiaroscuro woodcuts made during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by such master artists as Domenico Beccafumi, Ugo da Carpi, Bartolomeo Coriolano, and Niccolò Vicentino. Although the chiaroscuro technique …

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

A House Hunt: Which Members of Congress Are Shown in this Panoramic Photo?

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

Many pictures come into Prints and Photographs Division collections with little or no identification on them. It’s not entirely surprising, since a portion of our collections were generated or collected by individuals who readily knew the who, what, where and when that depictions can evoke and didn’t feel compelled to write it down. But even …

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

Sail Through a New Flickr Album: America’s Cup

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

Although I grew up within walking distance of the ocean, yacht races such as the historic America’s Cup–the match races between sailing yachts that have been held since 1851–have been largely off my radar. So I relished the opportunity to sail through nearly twenty years of America’s Cup history through a new Flickr album, “America’s …