The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints and Photographs Division. What do the Golden Triangle, horse-drawn buggies, Oil City, and the Mummers’ Parade have in common? They can all be seen in a new set of photographs of The Keystone State–Pennsylvania. We are grateful for the generous grant from The Pew […]
Many of us may be focusing on stay-cations and armchair travel this summer. One of my favorite modes of seeing the world through others’ eyes is to try searching phrases and word combinations in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC). Although it yields a different kind of experience than one might encounter traveling in […]
The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division. Riveting drawings by artist Toni Lane are among the first COVID-19 acquisitions by the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (P&P). Seniors First is part of a series of drawings that Lane began in mid-March and is […]
In 1970, working for LOOK magazine, Charlotte Brooks traveled to Minnesota to photograph Michael McConnell and Jack Baker for a profile on committed same-sex relationships. Activists for gay rights, McConnell and Baker can be seen in these photographs enjoying domestic life, relaxing in a park, attending church, socializing with friends, and carrying signs and leaflets […]
Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. One way to commemorate this anniversary might be to explore the online collection Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938. More than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of formerly enslaved people are available online. These narratives were collected in […]
My images throughout time give glimpses into poverty, segregation, and perseverance in cities throughout America during the past half century. They are part of an evolving historical record, contributing stories of resilience and pride … Camilo J. Vergara has been photographing low-income, racially segregated neighborhoods in American cities since the 1970s. Earlier this year, the […]
Given her accomplishments as an aviator, including becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, it should come as no surprise that Amelia Earhart was frequently photographed. The Prints & Photographs Division’s collections include a number of images of Earhart, including some photographs of her sitting in a cockpit looking relaxed and self-assured. […]
The recent organization and cataloging of the more than 90,000 black-and-white and color images in the Congressional Quarterly Photograph Collection enables researchers to explore U.S. Congressional activities as well as a variety of governmental initiatives, policy issues, and Capitol Hill neighborhood doings. The photos date primarily from 1988 to 2005 and were created by photographers […]
When I envision how to research a photograph or any other image, one methodology I come back to over and over consists of ever-widening circles, with the photo in question at center. Picture, if you will, a stone thrown in a still pond and the ripples flowing outwards, growing ever wider. Today’s stone is the […]
In the Library’s latest Free to Use and Reuse set of images drawn from the collections, the focus is on the horse, and all the myriad ways these noble animals have been part of our lives, including sports, recreation, agriculture, transportation, and so on. I spotted one image that for me, and maybe for many […]