Last Updated: July 22, 2010
Photos, Individual Collections as OAI Sets
- Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959
- Description:
Spanning from the mid 1920s through the 1950s, the Theodor Horydczak
collection (about 14,350 photographs online) documents the architecture
and social life of the Washington metropolitan area in the 1920s, 1930s,
and 1940s, including exteriors and interiors of commercial, residential,
and government buildings, as well as street scenes and views of
neighborhoods. A number of Washington events and activities, such as the
1932 Bonus Army encampment, the 1933 World Series, and World War II
preparedness campaigns, are also depicted.
setSpec: horyd
setName: Theodor Horydczak Collection (Photographs) - Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955
- Description:
The Gottscho-Schleisner Collection is comprised of over 29,000 images
primarily of architectural subjects, including interiors and exteriors of
homes, stores, offices, factories, historic buildings, and other
structures. Subjects are concentrated chiefly in the northeastern United
States, especially the New York City area, and Florida. Included are the
homes of notable Americans, such as Raymond Loewy, and of several U.S.
presidents, as well as color images of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.
Many of the photographs were commissioned by architects, designers,
owners and architectural publications, and document important
achievements in American 20th-century architecture and interior design.
setSpec: gottscho
setName: Gottscho-Schleisner Collection (Photographs) - "Suffering Under a Great Injustice": Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar
- Description:
In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), America's
best-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in
California and the Japanese Americans interned there during World War II.
The collection presents for the first time side-by-side digital scans of
both Adams's 242 original negatives and his 209 photographic prints,
allowing viewers to see his darkroom technique and in particular how he
cropped his prints. Adams's Manzanar work is a departure from his
signature style of landscape photography. Although a majority of the
photographs are portraits, the images also include views of daily life,
agricultural scenes, and sports and leisure activities.
setSpec: manz
setName: Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar - Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
- Description:
The Panoramic Photograph Collection contains
approximately four thousand images featuring American cityscapes,
landscapes, and group portraits. They offer an overview of the nation,
its enterprises and its interests, with a focus on the start of the
twentieth century when the panoramic photo format was at the height of
its popularity. Subject strengths include: agricultural life; beauty
contests; disasters; engineering work such as bridges, canals and dams;
fairs and expositions; military and naval activities, especially during
World War I; the oil industry; schools and college campuses, sports, and
transportation. The images date from 1851 to 1991 and depict scenes in
all fifty states and the District of Columbia. More than twenty foreign
countries and a few U.S. territories are also represented. These
panoramas average between twenty-eight inches and six feet in length,
with an average width of ten inches.
setSpec: pan
setName: LC Panoramic Photographs - Glass negatives from the Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright
- Description:
Orville and Wilbur Wright, pioneers in early aviation, used photography
to document their experiments with flight and to record family events.
Subjects depicted include portraits of the Wright brothers and their
family members; friends and associates; views of the Wright family home
at 7 Hawthorn St., Dayton, Ohio; Orville Wright's home "Hawthorne Hill",
Dayton; family gatherings; the brothers performing gliding experiments
and powered flight tests at Kitty Hawk, N.C., and at Huffman Prairie,
Dayton, Ohio, (including views of the first flight at Kitty Hawk, Dec.
17, 1903). Also includes images of the Wright camp at Kitty Hawk;
airplane motors; a few views of the Wright Company plant; portraits of
Orville Wright's dog Scipio; some landscape views of areas around Dayton,
Ohio and Kitty Hawk, N.C. Also Charles Lindbergh at Wilbur Wright Field,
1927; photographs of documents relating to a legal case against Bishop
Milton Wright.
setSpec: wright
setName: Wright Brothers Negatives - John C. H. Grabill Collection
- Description:
The one hundred and eighty-eight photographs sent by John C. H. Grabill to
the Library of Congress for copyright registration (1888-91) are thought
to be the largest surviving collection of this early Western
photographer's work. The photographs document frontier life in Colorado,
South Dakota, and Wyoming and include views of hunters, prospectors,
cowboys, Chinese immigrants, and U.S. Army personnel as well as cattle
and sheep ranches, mining operations, towns, natural landmarks, forts,
railroads, mills, stagecoaches, and wagons. A number of the images
pertain to Indians and their contact with the white man. According to the
information printed on the photographic mounts, Grabill had studios in
Deadwood and Lead City, South Dakota, and was "Official photographer of
the Black Hills & F. P.[Fort Pierre] R. R. and Home State Mining Co."
setSpec: grabil
setName: Grabill Collection (Photographs) - Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection
- Description:
Collection comprises 263 photographic prints, mainly portrait photographs
of British, French, and Turkish military personnel, including a nurse
attached to the French troops, and portraits of the leaders of the allied
forces, Lord Raglan, Maréchal Pélissier, and Omer Lutfi
Pacha, as well as two portraits of Fenton dressed as a Zouave,
self-portraits or possibly taken by Marcus Sparling, and views of cavalry
and artillery camps, a mortar battery, a cemetery, views of buildings, the
harbor, and ships at Balaklava, the plains between Balaklava and
Sevastopol, and distant views of Sevastopol.
setSpec: fenton
setName: Fenton Crimean War Photographs - Curtis (Edward S.) Collection of photographs
- Description:
Over 950 photographic prints from 1890-1929 of Native Americans in the
Pacific Northwest, New Southwest, Great Basin, Great Plains, Plateau
Region, California, and Alaska. Features studio and field photographs.
About two-thirds of the Curtis photographs at the Library of Congress
images were not published in Curtis's multi-volume work, The North
American Indian. The collection includes a large number of individual
or group portraits, as well as traditional and ceremonial dress, dwellings
and other structures, agriculture, arts and crafts, rites and ceremonies,
dances, games, food preparation, transportation, and scenery. Records
will be added over time.
setSpec: ecur
setName: Curtis (Edward S.) Collection (Photographs) - Photochrom Prints
- Description:
Late 19th and early 20th century travel views
primarily of Eastern and
Central European destinations (including the former Austro-Hungarian
Empire). Includes cities and towns in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia &
Hercegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France,
Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands,
Norway, Poland, the French and Italian Riviera, Romania, Russia, Scotland,
Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Ukraine,
and Wales. Also includes some views of sites in Algeria, the Holy Land,
Tunisia, and Turkey. Images primarily depict architecture, monuments,
landscapes, cityscapes, and waterfronts. Some images also show people and
aspects of daily life.
setSpec: pchrom
setName: Photochrom Prints - Abdul Hamid II Collection
- Description:
This monumental collection portrays the Ottoman Empire during the reign
of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II. The 1,819 photographs in 51
large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They highlight the
modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire, featuring
images of educational facilities and students; well-equipped army and
navy personnel and facilities; technologically advanced lifesaving and
fire fighting brigades; factories; mines; harbors; hospitals; and
government buildings. Most of the places depicted are within the
boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq,
Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included.
setSpec: ahii
setName: Abdul Hamid II Collection (Photographs) - Brady-Handy Collection
- Description:
Levin C. Handy (1855?-1932) was apprenticed at the age
of twelve to his uncle, famed Civil War photographer Mathew B. Brady
(1823?-1896).
After Brady's death on January 15, 1896, his remaining photography files
became the property of his nephew. The L.C. Handy Studio had been located
at 494 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC. In the 1890s Brady himself had
worked and lived at the Maryland Avenue address. Handy had become an
independent photographer and over the years owned studios in partnership
with Samuel Chester and with Chester and Brady. The Maryland Avenue studio
was the most permanent and was the place where Levin Handy resided at his
death in 1932. Handy left his own work and that of
his famous uncle to his two daughters, Mrs. Alice H. Cox and Mrs. Mary H.
Evans. In 1954 the Library of Congress purchased approximately 10,000
original, duplicate, and copy negatives from Handy's daughters.
setSpec: brhc
setName: Brady-Handy Collection (Photographs) - Lawrence & Houseworth Collection
- Description:
In 1867 the Library of Congress acquired a set of more than 900 albumen
silver half stereographs published by Lawrence and Houseworth of San
Francisco. The acquisition also included the third edition of Gems of
California Scenery, a catalog listing titles for all the views published
by the firm. This was one of the Library's earliest photographic
acquisitions. The images date from 1862 to 1867.
The photographs depict major settlements, boom towns, placer and
hydraulic mining operations, shipping and transportation routes, and such
points of scenic interest throughout northern California and western
Nevada as the Yosemite Valley and the Calaveras Redwoods. The collection
also includes an extensive pictorial survey of mid-nineteenth-century San
Francisco.
setSpec: lawhou
setName: Lawrence & Houseworth Collection (Photographs) - William C. Brumfield Collection
- Description:
William C. Brumfield, Professor of Russian Studies at Tulane University,
New Orleans, Louisiana, has extensively photographed and written about
the wooden architecture of the Russian North, the jumping-off point for
the explorers, traders, and missionaries who colonized Siberia. He also
has photographed the distinctive architecture of such Siberian cities as
Perm, Tiumen', Tobol'sk, and Tomsk. The William C. Brumfield Collection
contains photographs given to the Library of Congress for inclusion in
its permanent collections and in Meeting of Frontiers, consisting of
around 900 slides
from 1987-2000. The collection documents architectural heritage of
pre-Soviet Russia,
highlighting wooden buildings, and religious, commercial and industrial
facilities, as well as some landscapes.
setSpec: brum
setName: William C. Brumfield Collection (Photographs) - Selected civil war photographs, 1861-1865
- Description:
Images depict military personnel and facilities, primarily from a Union
perspective. Includes the main Eastern theater, the federal navy and
seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, the
war in the West, Washington, D.C., African Americans, fortifications,
battlefields, preparations for battle and the aftermath of battle. Also,
many portraits of officers and enlisted men, and of federal and
confederate government members, including Abraham Lincoln and his assassins.
setSpec: cwp
setName: Selected civil war photographs, 1861-1865 - National Child Labor Committee Photographs
- Description:
Working as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor
Committee (NCLC), Lewis Hine (1874-1940) documented working and living
conditions of children in the United States between 1908 and 1921. The
NCLC photos are useful for the study of labor, reform movements, children,
working class families, education, public health, urban and rural housing
conditions, industrial and agricultural sites, and other aspects of urban
and rural life in America in the early twentieth century. The full
collection consists of more than 5,100 photographic prints and 323 glass
negatives, given to the Library of Congress, along with the NCLC records,
in 1954 by Mrs. Gertrude Folks Zimand, acting for the NCLC in her capacity
as chief executive.
setSpec: nclc
setName: National Child Labor Committee Photographs - Matson (G. Eric and Edith) Photograph Collection
- Description:
Photographs made by the American Colony Photo Department and its successor,
the Matson Photo Service, illustrating Middle East culture, history, and
political events including people and locations in Israel, the West Bank,
Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Turkey.
setSpec: matpc
setName: Matson (G. Eric and Edith) Photograph Collection - Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Photographs)
- Description:
features color photographic surveys of the vast
Russian Empire made between ca. 1905 and 1915. Frequent subjects include people, religious architecture, historic
sites, industry and agriculture, public works construction, scenes along
water and railway transportation routes, and views of villages and cities.
An active photographer and scientist, Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944)
undertook most of his ambitious color documentary project from 1909 to
1915. The Library of Congress purchased the collection from the
photographer's sons in 1948. The online collection presents
Prokudin-Gorskii's vision and legacy in several image formats: glass
negatives, sepia-tone prints, album pages, and modern color composites and
renderings.
setSpec: prok
setName: Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Photographs) - African American Photographs Assembled for 1900 Paris Exhibition
- Description:
Full collection includes roughly 1900 photos gathered for use in the American Negro Exhibit at the Paris Exposition,
consisting of portraits and scenes of education, work, and daily life.
As of early 2005, roughly 500 have been digitized, cataloged, and records made available for harvesting.
Collection includes more than 360 photos presented by W.E.B. Du Bois.
The Paris Exposition of 1900 (Exposition universelle internationale de 1900) devoted a building to matters of "social economy."
The United States section of the building featured an exhibit that, according to W. E. B. Du Bois, attempted to show
"(a) The history of the American Negro. (b) His present condition. (c) His education. (d) His literature."
setSpec: anedub
setName: African American Photographs Assembled for 1900 Paris Exhibition - National Photo Company Collection
- Description:
The National Photo Company Collection documents virtually all aspects of Washington, D.C., life. During the administrations of Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, the National Photo Company supplied photographs of current news events in Washington, D.C., as a daily service to its subscribers.
It also prepared sets of pictures on popular subjects and undertook special photographic assignments for local businesses and government agencies. The collection features portraits of presidents and celebrities and scenes of social life.
The portion of the collection that is online represents a small cross-section of the collection, roughly 7,300 images as of April 2007. The full collection consists of an estimated 80,000 images
(photographic prints and corresponding glass negatives) and includes photographic prints presented in chronological albums covering events of the period 1919 to 1930 and thematic groups of photographs on the four presidents, inaugurations, sports, landmarks, conventions, and topics of local interest.
The images date between ca. 1850 and 1945; the bulk of the images were created between 1909 and 1932. More images will be digitized and records added.
setSpec: ncpo
setName: National Photo Company Collection - Color Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1939-1945
- Description:
Between 1939 and 1944, government photography units within the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI)
produced approximately 1,600 color photographs, along with about 171,000 black-and-white photographs. Roy Stryker led the FSA unit during its active years and played a key role in the OWI unit in 1942-43.
The 644 color photographs produced by the FSA are less well known and far less extensive than the unit's black-and-white photographs.
The FSA color photographs depict life in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, with a focus on rural areas and farm labor.
The 965 color photographs from the OWI depict life and culture in the U.S.,
with a focus on factories and women employees, railroads, aviation training, and other aspects of World War II mobilization.
setSpec: fsac
setName: Color Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1939-1945 - Bain Collection
- Description:
Images from the photographic files of one of
America's earliest news picture agencies. The collection richly documents
sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, political
activities including the woman suffrage campaign, conventions and public
celebrations. The photographs Bain produced and gathered for distribution
through his news service were worldwide in their coverage, but there was
a special emphasis on life in New York City. The bulk of the collection
dates from the 1900s to the mid-1920s, but scattered images can be found
as early as the 1860s and as late as the 1930s. As of April 2007, all
39,744 glass negatives and approximately 1,650 photographic prints for
which copy negatives exist are available online. More images will be
digitized and records added.
setSpec: ggbain
setName: Bain Collection (photographs) - Carpenter Collection
- Description:
Photographs collected by journalist Frank G. Carpenter (1855-1924) to illustrate publications on travel and geography.
Many of the images dating between 1910 and 1924 were taken by Carpenter or his daughter, Frances and later captioned and assembled in albums.
The remainder of the photographs were acquired by the Carpenters primarily from commercial sources.
Travel views of Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America, with additional locations in the Middle East, Mexico, Central America and some areas of the Caribbean.
Many of the images show people, illustrating occupations, clothing, customs, and daily life.
Other topics depicted include architecture, agriculture, commerce, education, housing, industry, transportation, archaeological sites, monuments, and street scenes.
A selection of about 1,600 images were online in early 2005.
This selection includes over 900 photographs of Alaska.
Additional records and images will be added.
setSpec: ffcarp
setName: Carpenter (Frank and Frances) collection (photographs) - Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection
- Description:
Photos produced and gathered by Frances Benjamin Johnston in the course of her career as a photojournalist, portrait and architectural photographer. Images in the collection span the period, 1850-1949, but the majority date between 1897 and 1927. Among the photographs from Johnston's early career are her coverage of American world's fairs; the White House; openings of Congress; and Progressive era educational efforts, including a survey of Washington, D.C., schools and such minority educational institutions as the Hampton Institute and the Tuskegee Institute. The collection also includes photographs collected by Johnston, including images of family and friends and works by other women photographers. The entire collection consists of an estimated 20,000 photographic prints and 3,700 glass and film negatives. A selection of about 1,500 images were online in early 2005. Additional records and images will be added.
setSpec: fbj
setName: Johnston (Frances Benjamin) collection (photographs) -
Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964
About the Carl Van Vechten Photographs Collection at the Library of Congress - Description:
The Carl Van Vechten Photographs Collection consists of 1,395 photographs taken by American photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) between 1932 and 1964. Primarily studio portraits of people involved in the arts, including musicians, dancers, artists, literati, theatrical, film, and television actors and actresses. Includes black entertainers, particularly those associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Also includes a few athletes, statesmen and publishers, as well as portraits of Van Vechten, including one self-portrait. Most are individual portraits, but also includes some group portraits. Sitters represented in ten or more photos are: Judith Anderson, Tallulah Bankhead, Anton Dolin, Ram Gopal, Hugh Laing, Alicia Markova, and Ethel Waters. A much smaller portion of the collection is an assortment of American landscapes. These are primarily sites and scenes in Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Primarily Massachusetts and Maine, including landscapes, seascapes, wharves, beaches, barns, dwellings, sculpture, and antique shops and yard ornaments; windmill, haying, and architectural elements in Massachusetts. Also includes New York City skylines, cityscapes, monuments, ironwork, and scene overlooking backyards with clotheslines. Portrait of a boy and one of a man in New Mexico pueblos. One image of boys sitting on street curb and one of man crouched in bar doorway. Yale University stadium; passageway with columns at University of Virginia. Barns, details and full views of sculpture and fountains in various locales.
setSpec: van
setName: Van Vechten Collection (Photographs) -
America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1846
About the Daguerreotypes Collection at the Library of Congress - Description:
The Library's daguerreotype collection (presented online through American Memory) consists of almost 750 photographs dating from 1839 to 1864. Most have been digitized. Portrait daguerreotypes produced by the Mathew Brady studio make up the major portion of the collection. The collection also includes early architectural views by John Plumbe, several Philadelphia street scenes, early portraits by pioneering daguerreotypist Robert Cornelius, studio portraits by black photographers James P. Ball and Francis Grice, and copies of painted portraits.
setSpec: dag
setName: Daguerreotypes - Stereograph Cards Collection
- Description:
Digitized stereographic cards from the Stereograph Collection. Approximately 5,000 cards from a total of over 52,000 have been digitized by early 2006. The online images feature cities and towns around the world, expeditions and expositions, industries, disasters, and portraits of Native Americans, presidents, and celebrities. Particular concentrations include: views of the American west taken in the 1870s as part of geological and geographical surveys; the American Civil War; the Spanish American War; and stereo views taken by amateurs and shared through the Amateur Photographic Exchange Club. Versos of cards have been digitized if they have text on them.
setSpec: stereo
setName: Stereographic Cards - Lomax Collection of Photographs Depicting Folk Musicians
- Description:
Roughly 400 snapshot photographs made in the course of sound recording expeditions carried out by John Avery Lomax, Alan Lomax, and Ruby Terrill Lomax, between 1934 and ca. 1950 for the Archive of American Folk-Song. The photographs, which were transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division from the Archive of American Folk-Song in 1950, depict African American, Mexican American, and white musicians, singers and dancers, primarily in the southern United States (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia) and the Bahamas (Nassau, Andros Island, and Cat Island). In addition to posed portraits, the images show musicians performing in various settings: at home, in concert, and while performing prison labor outdoors. Views of children engaged in singing games, scenes of daily life, and some landscape views are also included. Musicians depicted include, among others, Henry Truvillion, James "Iron Head" Baker, Moses "Clear Rock" Platt, Leadbelly, Crockett "Davy" Ward, Bill Hensley, Uncle Bob Ledbetter, and Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, who assisted the Lomaxes on expeditions to Georgia and Florida, has been identified in a few photographs.
setSpec: lomaxpp
setName: Lomax Collection of Photographs Depicting Folk Musicians - Harris & Ewing Collection
- Description:
The Harris & Ewing Collection of photographic negatives includes glass and film negatives taken by Harris & Ewing, Inc., which photographed people, events, and architecture, particularly in Washington, D.C., during the period 1905-1945. Harris & Ewing, Inc., gave its collection of negatives to the Library in 1955. Available online are a growing proportion of the glass negatives - a subset (3,600 scans of glass negatives) of the approximately 50,000 news photographs and 20,000 studio portraits of notable people in the collection.
setSpec: hec
setName: Harris and Ewing Collection
