The world lost an inspired and inspiring researcher last April, when Joe Manning died. Manning devoted many years to researching people depicted in historical photographs, especially those found in National Child Labor Committee and Farm Security Administration collections. He leaves, however, a rich legacy, not only of his findings but also of his techniques for uncovering a wealth of information and a rich appreciation for individuals’ lives that can start with a photograph. Lewis Hine project from the Mornings on Maple Street web site. Some of the 16 volumes that allow one to page through printouts of the web site. Photo by P&P staff, 2021. The Library of Congress blog featured an interview with Manning in 2019, where he talked…
Category: Picture this
New Research Guide: Navigating for Images of Ships
The following is an interview with Jon Eaker, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division, about the subject of his research guide: Ships: Navigating for Images at the Library of Congress. Melissa: What is the most challenging thing about finding images related to ships in the collections? Jon: When searching the digitized collections in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, the most difficult thing is that we often copied the image’s title as it appeared on the item and many didn’t include a ship’s prefix (SS, USS, HMS, etc). For some ships with unique names it’s not much of a problem, but for ones with more generic names it can be an issue. A ship named America (of which there have…
Finding Fun Photos (and More) in Flickr
The following is a guest post by Jan Grenci, Reference Specialist, Prints & Photographs Division. The Prints & Photographs Division uses Flickr to share interesting images with the world. Some of our Flickr albums aim to bring together images on a particular theme, from a variety of collections and time periods. Others ask for your help in identifying images with little or no caption information. Please allow me to direct your attention to three recently published albums. Dog Stars Though I am more of a cat person, I am fond of dogs and can appreciate the plentiful dog images found in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC). One of my favorites of the dog photos shows two of Herbert…
New Research Guide: Latin America and the Caribbean in Photographs
A recently published research guide on Latin America and the Caribbean in Photographs by Curator of Photography Adam Silvia offered me a chance to take a virtual tour of a wide variety of collections I had not yet explored in detail as well as pointed out some of the hidden treasures in familiar collections. Through these images, you will find revealed new views of the landscapes and people of this large region, many through the eyes of creators from those countries. An upcoming virtual orientation will reveal such treasures as the two undigitized albums featured below. The one on the left is a delicately decorated album of photos taken by Guatemalan photographer Francisco Javier Rodas, depicting Guatemalans of Mayan descent.…