Photography - Overview
The millions of photographs in the Museum's collections compose a vast mosaic of the nation's history. Photographs accompany most artifact collections. Thousands of images document engineering projects, for example, and more record the steel, petroleum, and railroad industries.
Some 150,000 images capture the history, art, and science of photography. Nineteenth-century photography, from its initial development by W. H. F. Talbot and Louis Daguerre, is especially well represented and includes cased images, paper photographs, and apparatus. Glass stereographs and news-service negatives by the Underwood & Underwood firm document life in America between the 1890s and the 1930s. The history of amateur photography and photojournalism are preserved here, along with the work of 20th-century masters such as Richard Avedon and Edward Weston. Thousands of cameras and other equipment represent the technical and business side of the field.
"Photography - Overview" showing 3 items.
Framed Photograph of a Butternut Tree
- Description (Brief)
- This photograph of a butternut tree is one of forty-nine framed black and white photographic prints bequeathed to the Smithsonian by William F. Bucher of Washington, D.C. Bucher, a cabinetmaker, framed each photograph in wood of the same species as the tree depicted in the print. The photos were displayed in a special exhibition, Our Trees and their Woods at the United States National Museum in 1931.
- The tree depicted in this photograph was located in Dolly Copp Campground, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire. The image was made by the U.S. Forest Service. The frame is made of solid butternut wood.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1933
- photographer
- U.S. Forest Service
- frame maker
- Bucher, William F.
- ID Number
- AG*124450.03
- catalog number
- AG*124450.03
- accession number
- 124450
- maker number
- 16
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Framed Photograph of a Giant Cactus
- Description (Brief)
- This photograph of a giant cactus is one of forty-nine framed black and white photographic prints bequeathed to the Smithsonian by William F. Bucher of Washington, D.C. Bucher, a cabinetmaker, framed each photograph in wood of the same species as the tree depicted in the print. The photos were displayed in a special exhibition, Our Trees and their Woods at the United States National Museum in 1931. The photo comes courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service. The frame is made of a cactus veneer on cypress wood.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1932
- photographer
- U.S. Forest Service
- frame maker
- Bucher, William F.
- ID Number
- AG*124450.06
- accession number
- AG*124450.06
- 124450
- maker number
- 50
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Framed Photograph of an American Black Walnut Tree
- Description (Brief)
- This photograph of a black walnut tree is one of forty-nine framed black and white photographic prints bequeathed to the Smithsonian by William F. Bucher of Washington, D.C. Bucher, a cabinetmaker, framed each photograph in wood of the same species as the tree depicted in the print. The photos were displayed in a special exhibition, Our Trees and their Woods at the United States National Museum in 1931.
- The tree depicted in this photograph was located in Georgia and the image was made by U.S. Forestry Service. The frame is made of quarter-inch walnut veneer on white pine.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1931
- frame maker
- Bucher, William F.
- photographer
- U.S. Forest Service
- ID Number
- AG*115767.41
- catalog number
- 115767.41
- accession number
- 115767
- maker number
- 44
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center