Photography

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.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Heyman, Ken
ID Number
1982.0545.206
accession number
1982.0545.206
catalog number
82.545.206
Albumen cabinet card of a very tall man wearing a long Chinese robe. The card is captioned "Chang-Yu-Sing, The Chinese Giant / Born at Pekin, 1847, Height over 8 feet, Weight 364 lbs / A. Bogardus & Co. Photo., 872 Broadway, cor. 18th St. N.
Description (Brief)
Albumen cabinet card of a very tall man wearing a long Chinese robe. The card is captioned "Chang-Yu-Sing, The Chinese Giant / Born at Pekin, 1847, Height over 8 feet, Weight 364 lbs / A. Bogardus & Co. Photo., 872 Broadway, cor. 18th St. N. Y." The man's cheeks and a plant in the photograph are tinted. The back of the cabinet card bears marks in Chinese written with a calligraphy pen.
Description
The Circus Collection includes the Photographic History Collection’s object holdings related to the history of circus from the end of the nineteenth to the turn of the twenty-first century. For the purpose of this finding aid, circus is defined as any activity relating to the staging and viewing of circus, sideshow, or “freak show” performances. The collection is primarily composed of thirty cabinet print and thirteen carte-de-visite photographs of performers in circus “freak shows.” Some of these prints are marked with the identities of the individuals depicted, including Chang and Eng, Siamese twins employed by the Barnum & Bailey circus and Tom Thumb, a famous performer with dwarfism. In a number of the photographs, the people who performed for the circus are accompanied by their families, or “normal” individuals to emphasize the distinctiveness of the performer. The collection also includes a photo album with twenty-three photographs of circus performers. These pictures show “freak show” performers, acrobats, and other individuals who may have performed in circus shows.
The collection also includes several books. In the handmade book, Record of an Idle Summer, Florence Albrecht details her summer activities and shares reflections on her time on the Jersey Shore in 1906. In the chapter “May,” the author describes the circus coming to town, including several photographs of circus tents, elephants, and a parade down the main street of the town. P.T. Barnum’s autobiography Struggles and Triumphs also exists in the Photographic History Collection. In the book, Barnum recounts his life’s endeavors, including his New York American Museum and eponymous circus. While there are no photographs in the book, there are a number of illustrations, including a portrait of P.T. Barnum based on G. K. Warren’s photograph, pictures of his museum and various aspects of his traveling show. There is a collection of gelatin silver photographs made in 1972 by Leslie Sussmann and Sally Bordwell documenting carnivals across the American South.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880s
ID Number
PG.74.25.12
accession number
2009.0146
catalog number
74.25.12
This portrait of King Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut and Queen Debserin of Siam was made by an unknown photographer circa 1854-1856. King Mongkut, ruled his country from 1851 to 1868.
Description
This portrait of King Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut and Queen Debserin of Siam was made by an unknown photographer circa 1854-1856. King Mongkut, ruled his country from 1851 to 1868. A quarter-plate daguerreotype, the photograph is a unique positive image made on a silver-coated copper plate. This process is named for one of its inventors, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre. The daguerreotype was originally presented as a gift to U.S. President Franklin Pierce in 1856 by the king, and later became a very early donation to the Museum's collection of the history of photography in August 1890.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1854-1856
ID Number
PG.000222
accession number
1989.0550
catalog number
222
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Falk, Sam
ID Number
PG.69.99.020
catalog number
69.99.020
accession number
281224
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Basch, Peter
ID Number
2013.0327.0054
catalog number
2013.0327.0054
accession number
2013.0327
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970-1980s
maker
Baughman, J. Ross
ID Number
2010.0231.01.009
accession number
2010.0231
catalog number
2010.0231.01.009
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Name
Liu, Kalen
maker
Basch, Peter
ID Number
2013.0327.0055
catalog number
2013.0327.0055
accession number
2013.0327
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2005
date printed
2010
maker
Raab, Susana
ID Number
2018.0016.0007
accession number
2018.0016
catalog number
2018.0016.0007
With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture.
Description
With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture. She recorded this unconventional time of Anti-War demonstrations in California, communes, Love-Ins, peace marches and concerts, as well as her family life as she became a wife and mother. The photographs were collected by William Yeingst and Shannon Perich in a cross-unit collecting collaboration. Together they selected over two hundred photographs relevant to photographic history, cultural history, domestic life and social history.
Law’s portraiture and concert photographs include Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Lovin Spoonful and Peter, Paul and Mary. She also took several of Janis Joplin and her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, including the photograph used to create the poster included in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum’s exhibition 1001 Days and Nights in American Art. Law and other members of the Hog Farm were involved in the logistics of setting up the well-known musical extravaganza, Woodstock. Her photographs include the teepee poles going into the hold of the plane, a few concert scenes and amenities like the kitchen and medical tent. Other photographs include peace rallies and concerts in Haight-Ashbury, Coretta Scott King speaking at an Anti-War protest and portraits of Allen Ginsburg and Timothy Leary. From her life in New Mexico the photographs include yoga sessions with Yogi Bhajan, bus races, parades and other public events. From life on the New Buffalo Commune, there are many pictures of her family and friends taken during meal preparation and eating, farming, building, playing, giving birth and caring for children.
Ms. Law did not realize how important her photographs were while she was taking them. It was not until after she divorced her husband, left the farm for Santa Fe and began a career as a photographer that she realized the depth of history she recorded. Today, she spends her time writing books, showing her photographs in museums all over the United States and making documentaries. In 1990, her video documentary, “Flashing on the Sixties,” won several awards.
A selection of photographs was featured in the exhibition A Visual Journey: Photographs by Lisa Law, 1964–1971, at the National Museum of American History October 1998-April 1999.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1967
date printed
1998
maker
Law, Lisa
ID Number
1998.0139.053
catalog number
1998.0139.053
accession number
1998.0139
Press print; Asian marchers "Help Relieve our Orphaned Wounded and Homeless"; men marching carrying American flags and placards or posters with slogans about boycotting Japanese silk industry and helping orphans.
Description (Brief)
Press print; Asian marchers "Help Relieve our Orphaned Wounded and Homeless"; men marching carrying American flags and placards or posters with slogans about boycotting Japanese silk industry and helping orphans. "Avoid the trademark made in Japan" and "Japanese militarism."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
pre-1951
maker
Acme Photo
ID Number
2015.0076.0067
catalog number
2015.0076.0067
accession number
2015.0076

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