Duke Kahanamoku and his Troupe. Photo by Frank G. Carpenter, 1921. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph .3a40900 A native Hawaiian, Duke Kahanamoku grew up with a love of water sports. "The Duke" ...
Photographing the Golden Gate Bridge is a challenge on many levels – quite literally! Nearly 9,000 feet in length, and rising almost 800 feet into the air, it doesn’t pose easily for the camera...
School Integration, Barnard School, Washington, D.C. Photo by Thomas J. OHalloran, May 27, 1955. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppm sca.03119 On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Brown ...
This image, found while browsing for bridges in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, lured a colleague in for a closer look. I was glancing over her shoulder, and the photograph drew me in an...
At the May Day Pageant in Siloam, Greene County, Georgia. Photo by Jack Delano, May 1941. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa .8a35631 In May 1941, Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographer Jack Dela...
President Roosevelt and Major Pitcher before Liberty Cap at Yellowstone Park. Stereograph copyrighted by Underwood & Underwood, 1903. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ste reo.1s02130 The anniversary of ...
Nearly half a million people lived in San Francisco, California on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The majority of them were fast asleep when the world began to shake apart. At 5:12 a.m. the city was stru...
Who are the two little French boys that were dropped, almost naked, from the deck of the sinking Titanic into the arms of survivors in a lifeboat? From which place in France did they come and to whic...
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. Cover Image: Gardens for a Beautiful America: 1895-1935: Photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston When house...
When each heart gives out its best, Then the talk is full of zest: Light your fire and never fear, Life was made for love and cheer. (Henry Van Dyke, “Inscriptions for a Friend’s House”) Life w...
Jim Thorpe, New York NL, at Spring Training in Marlin Springs, Texas (Baseball). Photo published by Bain News Service, 1918. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggb ain.50300 As I write this post on March 29th...
We are still savoring the comments visitors to the National Book Festival offered last fall while viewing sample photographs from our collections. This visitor’s comments seem particularly apt...
One hundred years ago, the city of Tokyo sent Washington, D.C. a gift of friendship that continues to bloom today. Quite literally, in fact! Three thousand flowering cherry trees arrived in D.C. in 1...
Alice Rohe. Photograph copyrighted by Alfred S. Campbell Art Co., between 1900 and 1920. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppm sca.32096 Start with a solid upbringing as the daughter of an artist father in l...
Researchers come to their topics in many ways. Some set out to test a theory, to revise the assertions of others, or to explore people, places, events or issues from new angles. "The Johnstown ...
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. “You know the generals. Now meet the young men who made them famous.” Unidentified soldier in Confederate in...
Adam Forepaugh & Sells Brothers Enormous Shows Combined. Poster copyrighted by Strobridge Lith. Co., 1896. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph .3b52437 For Leap Day 2012, Prints & Photographs proud...
When James Maxwell Pringle departed for Russia in November 1917, his intent was to visit the Petrograd (St. Petersburg) branch of his employer, National City Bank. His business trip turned into an un...
Prang's Valentine Cards. Print by L. Prang & Co., copyrighted 1883. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppm sca.09465 In honor of Valentine’s Day, here is a vintage 1883 advertisement for Prang&...
“Meet an American soldier of production. … His uniform is a pair of overalls and a welder’s mask. Not reveille, but a battered alarm clock awakens him six days a week at 6 a.m. There are no service s...
Students at the Woolworth's lunch counter on the second day of the sit-in, Greensboro, North Carolina. UPI photo, 1960 Feb. 2. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppm sca.08095 On February 1, 1960, four y...
Robert Burns, Ayr, Scotland. Photochrom by Detroit Publishing Company, between 1890 and 1900. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppm sc.07528 “Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o’ the pudding...
New Years Greeting, Chinatown 1912. Photograph published by Bain News Service, 1912. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggb ain.10143 The following is a guest post by Brett Carnell, Acting Head, Technical Ser...
Four years ago today we embarked on an experiment to post photographs from Library of Congress collections on the photosharing site, Flickr. We had done considerable planning, and we were quite clea...
Can you imagine the D.C. skyline without the familiar obelisk of the Washington Monument? If Peter Force’s 1837 design had been chosen, it could have been a hollowed-out pyramid. Or what if Memorial...
Keep Your Teeth Clean. Spare the Trees. Be Careful Near Machinery. Keep Your Teeth Clean. Poster, between 1936 and 1938. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph .3g02715 Advice dispensed by posters created bet...
As the previous “Words About Pictures” blog post demonstrated, street scenes can offer considerable matter for interpretation. Not only do they show exteriors, but they stir thoughts abo...
Snow-buntings (cover illustration for Puck), illustration by Will Hammell, published 24 January 1914. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppm sca.28017 We mark winter’s imminent arrival with a cover illu...
Amundsen Expeditions Camp on the Way to the South Pole, photograph copyrighted by United Newspapers, Ltd., London, copyrighted May 23, 1912. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph .3b17881 One hundred years a...
Thanks to a recent initiative by Library of Congress and National Park Service staff, the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog has grown by nearly 400,000 records. Through a bit of technical wizar...
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