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Category: Prints

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

Reflections of Dorothea Lange

Posted by: Jan Grenci

Each month, I gather images from the holdings of the Prints & Photographs Division for a Flickr album. The albums have a theme, the most recent one being Women Photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI). It features the work of Esther Bubley, Marjory Collins, Dorothea Lange, And Marion Post Wolcott. As …

Parishoners [sic] of St. Thomas Church resting after spending many hours preparing food for a benefit picnic supper. Near Bardstown, Kentucky. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, 1940. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a43010

A Different Wrinkle: Representation of Older Women in P&P Collections

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Barbara Orbach Natanson, former Reference Section Head, Prints & Photographs Division. Being a woman of a certain age myself, I recently began to wonder how and where older women are depicted in Prints & Photographs Division collections. Naturally, even in embarking on such an exploration, one has to …

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

A Peek at Family Trees, Records & Registers

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

Like many people, I enjoy researching my family history, exploring my genealogy and collecting interesting facts, images, and records. As you can imagine, I sometimes come across visual materials in my work that make me think about my hobby.  In our collections, we have many examples of commercially printed and sold family trees, records and …

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

New Research Guide: Cartoons and Caricatures

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new guide describing the Prints & Photographs Division’s large and varied collection of cartoon and caricature art. Martha H. Kennedy, now retired Curator of Popular & Applied Graphic Art and author of the guide, describes the appeal of this collection material: “The Library’s vast, diverse collections …

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

Reflections on Photochroms

Posted by: Jan Grenci

The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress include thousands of photochroms. These early color prints were photomechanically reproduced so they weren’t photographs in the traditional sense. I spent some time looking through the photochroms, most of which date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while working on …

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

Slice Up the Fruitcake

Posted by: Jan Grenci

This week, we’re looking at something I don’t like very much – fruitcake. This seasonal sweet treat has never appealed to me. But while preparing for a recent Flickr album featuring images of butter and baking, I stumbled upon three fruitcake photos that caught my eye and deserved detailed views. First up, a Russell Lee …

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

New Research Guides: Artists’ Fine Prints at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division. A longer version will appear in On Paper: Journal of the Washington Print Club (Fall 2021). Like poetry, literature, and music—visual art can reflect history, society, politics, and culture in uniquely powerful ways. Artists’ prints typically exist in …

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

Geppi Gems Exhibit: Highlights from the Stephen A. Geppi Collection at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Arts, Prints and Photographs Division. Popeye, Superman, Wonder Woman, Black Panther – some cartoon characters have become both instantly and internationally recognizable, but they didn’t get their start on television or in the movies, but rather on the pages …

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

Sultana’s Dream: Linocut Series by Chitra Ganesh

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Charlotte Giles, Reference Librarian, Asian Division. In a new acquisition by the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, Chitra Ganesh, a visual artist based in Brooklyn, retells the 1905 Indian feminist utopian essay, “Sultana’s Dream” by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat, but in the style of a graphic novel …