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Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The following is a guest post by Jan Grenci, Reference Specialist for Posters, Prints and Photographs Division. This post is the latest entry in the occasional Double Take series, where we take a closer look at images. As a reference specialist, it should come as no surprise that I enjoy doing research. What may surprise …
Posted in: FSA/OWI, Photographs, Series: Double Take, Visual literacy
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 …
Posted in: Photographs, Portraits, Researcher Stories, Visual literacy
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The latest entry in the Double Take series owes its existence to serendipity. Accidental discovery is alive and well in our online collections, and it’s easy to find one thing when looking for another. While working on a reference question about a building on 9th Street N.W. in Washington, D.C. and browsing through older photos …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Double Take, Visual literacy
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
In the latest installment in our occasional series, Double Take, we take a first – and second look – at the photo below. View the image and remember your very first impression before scrolling down to read further. Despite all evidence to the contrary, the first thought in my mind about this photo was: Girl …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Double Take, Visual literacy
Posted by: Lara Szypszak
The following is an interview featuring Jan Grenci, Reference Specialist – Posters, Prints and Photographs Division. Many may ask if campaign posters make a difference in political elections. Some of us will stick a sign in our lawn, and others may simply see posters hung in storefront windows. With another election upon us, I turned …
Posted in: Posters, Prints, Visual literacy
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The semester is well underway in many U.S. schools and, by now, one would expect their classrooms to have acquired what my family referred to as the “lived-in look.” One of my favorite photo detail explorations is to peer closely at classrooms—particularly what appears at students’ seats, on the chalkboards and adorning the walls—and to …
Posted in: Photographs, Visual literacy
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
A visit to the Library of Congress is, I hope, on the bucket list of many Americans, either to tour the galleries and ornately decorated spaces of the Thomas Jefferson Building or to do research in any of our multiple reading rooms and research centers. However, if you can’t come to us, we will come …
Posted in: Photographs, Prints, Visual literacy
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
While browsing through our millions of images in the Prints and Photographs Division, I often do a double take. I stop, look again, and start asking questions. In this new occasional blog series, Double Take, we will take a first and then a second look at those images together. Some images that we’ll feature will …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Double Take, Visual literacy
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The smallest detail in a photograph can sometimes be the key to unlocking its story. Take a look at this stereograph of a classroom full of students in 1908. When I found it in our collections, my curiosity was piqued by the students using handheld stereoscopes to view stereographs. (The girl at center in white …
Posted in: Photographs, Visual literacy