Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991

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Go directly to the collection, Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

1) The collection contains photographs of cities and towns across the United States. These photographs show city skylines, architectural styles, and street life from the period.

Search on cityscapes, commercial streets, square, and town to find views of urban centers.

Pack Square from Legal Building, Asheville, N.C., ca.1910

Students can use the collection to observe the development of different locales. Search on city or town names such as San Francisco, Baltimore, or Chicago to find photographs which show the change within these cities over time. Students can also use the State and Country Index to help them locate specific sites. Use the table below to investigate items which show change in three cities:

2) The wide range of U.S. industry photos in the collection can enhance teaching units on the rise of industrial and modern America. Students can get an idea of industrial development at the turn of the century by looking at the images of work and work environments. Use the chart below to see examples:

Search on specific types of labor such as mining, lumbering, oil, and steel to see other images of the work environment during the turn of the century.

3) Taking the Long View, 1851-1991, documents daily life by showing recreation and leisure activities of the time. Students can research what activities were new arrivals on the turn-of-the-century leisure scene. For example, students may investigate when the beauty pageant became an American institution, and how gender roles were changing during this period. Some examples of activities are listed in the chart below:

Search on bathing beauty pageants, sporting events, rodeos, conventions, picnics, and banquets to find images of people involved in the events of daily life.

Bathing Girl Parade, Seal Beach, Cal., ca.1917

4) The style of panoramic photography recorded images as well as a sense of how Americans of the period perceived their surroundings. Grand vistas of landscapes were popular during the turn-of-the-century decades because of American pride and a sense of mastery of their world and its resources. Taking the Long View, 1851-1991, contains panoramic photographs of natural wonders, many of which became heavily visited tourist destinations. For example, students can compare a panoramic photo of Crater Lake taken in 1913 with the photos found on the Crater Lake National Park website. Using these images and the timeline from the Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 in American Memory, students can begin to study the history of the U.S. conservation movement and the formation of a National Park System.