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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
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
If you are interested in learning more about visual literacy and historical thinking and about resources such as historical newspapers and photographs, you are in luck! Join us online for a free two-day event: “The Library of Congress and Teachers: Unlocking the Power of Primary Sources.” The virtual conference will take place October 27-28, 2015 …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs, Visual literacy
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
When I look at my family photographs, the stories behind them usually come flooding back to me. I recall the occasion–and often people and events I associate with the occasion, even if they aren’t shown in the pictures. But lacking those personal associations, photographs–especially historical photographs–can seem like vast mysteries–or closed storybooks. Now a wonderful …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs, Visual literacy
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
How can one ever come to understand a collection of 170,000 pictures? If you read my post a few weeks ago about finding unprinted Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI) photographs, you probably quickly realized that the collection is complex, consisting of many interrelated parts. I hope you also got a sense of the …
Posted in: FSA/OWI, Photographs, Visual literacy