Photography Collections

The Archives Center holds significant collections that consist largely of photographs. Most notable are the Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, 1895-1921 (28,000 images); the Donald H. Sultner-Welles Collection, 1951-1980 (87,000 color transparencies taken around the world); and the Arthur d'Arazien Industrial Photographs, ca. 1939-1984, consisting of thousands of black and white and color photographs by a leading industrial and advertising photographer. The Scurlock Photographic Studio Records, 1904-1994, include approximately 250,000 images, primarily of Washington, D.C.'s African American community. Other photographic collections document specialized scientific or cultural fields, such as the Hazen Collection of Band Photographs and Ephemera, ca. 1818-1931. Many of the manuscript and advertising collections include photographs as well.

The Archives Center acquires photographs whose subject content relates to the various curatorial fields of the Museum. By contrast, the Museum's Division of Photographic History collects photographs directly related to the aesthetic, technical, and scientific history of photography.

Collection Finding Aids Currently Available On-Line

• Henry Davis Cyanotype Album, circa 1880, #1042
• Gilman Manufacturing Company Photograph Album, 1930s, #1057
• Herman Leonard Photographic Collection, 1948-1991, #445
• John Frances Little Panama Canal Photograph Album, 1907-1914, #708
• Beatrice Litzinger Postcard Collection, 1900-1990,  #530
• New England Gravestone Imagery Collection, ca. 1650-1815,
  #658
• Oversize Glass Photonegative Collection, 1893-1900, #416
• Charles Rivers Photographers, 1929-63 (primarily 1929-1930), #360
• Stereo Photographers Stereographs, 1893-1904, #414
• Yadkin River Dam Photograph Album, 1916-1917, #1041
  
• 19^th Century Actor Photograph Collection, 1868-1897, #779
  

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