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Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Recently, frigid temperatures lingering in parts of the United States have caused a somewhat rare occurrence: the (partial) freezing of Niagara Falls. While water still flows, either visibly or under a frozen shell, sections of the massive falls are covered in ice, to the delight of tourists making the trip to the U.S./Canadian border to …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Caught Our Eyes
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Karen Chittenden, Cataloger, Prints and Photographs Division. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The Executive Order applied to all people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, forcing nearly …
Posted in: Asian American History, Photographs
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
One of the wonders of modern transportation that advertisers at the turn of the twentieth century communicated through pictures was the compact luxury of railroad sleeping cars, stressing how they offered the comforts of home and more. Often shown as a side feature are the porters who tended to passengers’ needs. African-American sleeping car porters, …
Posted in: Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Have you ever tried to photograph a baby? No easy task! The first challenge is getting him or her to smile, a job at which this photographer is currently failing, despite his best efforts: The second challenge is simply this: young babies cannot sit up on their own. Hence the need for a photographer to …
Posted in: Photographs, Portraits, Series: Anything to Get the Shot
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
With the many new faces on Capitol Hill this month as the 114th Congress gets underway, it’s an apt time to revisit the faces and activities of members of Congress of yesteryear. A new guide, “Pictures of Congress: An Overview,” helps researchers do just that. Although the Prints & Photographs Division generally does not receive …
Posted in: Cartoons, Photographs, Portraits, Prints
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
Pictures can eloquently convey some of the ugliness of war. Creating art can also be a powerful means of communicating the experience of war and coping with war trauma. On Thursday, January 22nd, Tara Tappert, an independent scholar who has spent the past twelve months as a David B. Larson Fellow in Health & Spirituality …
Posted in: News & Events, Photographs, Posters, Researcher Stories
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. You’re invited to play a virtual game that offers a fun way to explore the remarkable Flickr Commons. A new year of this special collaboration among close to 100 archives, libraries, and museums begins on January 16th. So brace yourself for …
Posted in: Flickr, Photographs
Posted by: Jeff Bridgers
When Barbara Natanson, fellow blogger and head of the reference section here in Prints & Photographs, shared with me the 1910 Lewis Hine photograph [below, left] of the boy assisting with deliveries in St. Louis, it brought home once again how enormously the world has changed in just over a century. In a similar fashion, …
Posted in: Photographs, Series: Pictures to Go