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 977 items.
Page 1 of 98
[Young man inspecting color prints in drying rack in darkroom : color photonegative, ca. 1955-60.]
- Summary
- No ink on negative. Man looking at photographic prints in the Scurlock Studios. "Kodak Safety Film" edge imprint. No Scurlock number
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1955
- 1960
- ca 1955-60
- Ca. 1955-60
- 20th century
- 1950-1960
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Local number
- AC0618.005.0000020.tif (AC Scan)
- Box 618.05.1
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Young man in darkroom with processing trays in darkroom : color photonegative.]
- Summary
- No ink on negative, no Scurlock number. Young man wearing rubber gloves, standing next to processing trays at Scurlock Studios. "Kodak Safety Film" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1955
- 1960
- 1955-60
- 20th century
- 1950-1960
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Local number
- AC0618.005.0000021.tif (AC Scan No.)
- Box 618.05.1
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Exterior of Capitol School of Photography : color transparency.]
- Summary
- No ink on negative. No edge imprint. No Scurlock number
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1948
- 1952
- 20th century
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Subject
- Capitol School of Photography
- Local number
- AC0618.005.0000045.tif (AC Scan No.)
- Box 618.05.2
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Unidentified photographic studio, but probably the Scurlock Studio : cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- With bust, lights, bench and backdrop. Pencil on negative: "3 -". "KODAK - SAFETY 456" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1960
- [n.d.]
- 20th century
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Local number
- Box 618.04.94
- AC0618.004.0000968.tif (scan number)
- No Scurlock number
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Kodak Petite Camera
- Description
- Since Kodak introduced the Brownie in 1900, a variety of easy-to-use cameras have been marketed, especially to women. The Kodak Petite from 1935, part of the Kodak Coquette set, came with a matching compact and lipstick case in a variety of color choices so that one might use it as an accessory to fashionable outfits.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1935
- maker
- Eastman Kodak Company
- ID Number
- 1995.0046.01
- catalog number
- 1995.0046.01
- accession number
- 1995.0046
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
The nation's Capitol seen through the slums
- Description
- Carl Mydans was part of Roy Stryker's photographic staff at the Resettlement Administration from late in 1935 until 1936. Between his assignments in the southeastern states to document cotton production and his travels farther north in New England, Mydans spent time in the nation's capital and photographed the Capitol from a different, less familiar point of view. During the 1930s, most neighborhoods surrounding the Capitol were poor shantytowns of tenements and shacks.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1935-09
- 1935
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.003
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.003
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Children playing in the slums behind the Capitol, Washington D.C.
- Description
- Carl Mydans' main projects for the Resettlement Administration dealt with photographing urban and residential development and the impoverished dwellings they were replacing. Mydans captured these two children outside their tenement somewhere amidst the shadows of the Capitol. Although new "greenbelt towns"—government-sponsored planned communities—were being developed in suburbs to relieve housing shortages, living conditions in most areas were below average.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1936-08
- 1936
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.004
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.004
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
An unemployed man sits on Michigan Avenue, Chicago
- Description
- Mydans' main projects for the Resettlement Administration dealt with photographing urban and residential development and the impoverished dwellings they were replacing. In Chicago, he chose to focus on the human subject, the people whose lives were affected by the Great Depression. Chicago, which had seen an increase in industrial productivity during the 1920s, was hit hard by its consequences during the 1930s. Mydans' caption for this photograph reads: In the depths of the Great Depression, one quarter of the entire American workforce was unemployed. In Chicago, the number was nearly half. Here one of their number sits bowed under the Spring sun on Michigan Avenue, 1936...
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1936
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.006
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.006
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Sharecropper's shack in Missouri
- Description
- As part of his job with the Farm Security Administration, Mydans traveled to Missouri and captured the lodgings of a sharecropping family. Mydans' F.S.A. caption indicates that this is a photograph of a kitchen in a cabin purchased for the Lake of the Ozarks project.
- Lake of the Ozarks is one of the world's largest manmade lakes. The main objective during the project was the construction of the Bagnell Dam in order to maintain a hydroelectric power plant. Hundreds of support buildings --serving as housing, a hospital, a jail, and a commissary-- also needed to be constructed to accommodate the thousands of workmen for the project's completion. The cabin pictured here may have served as lodging for one of these workers and his family.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1936-05
- 1936
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.007
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.007
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Transient cotton choppers on the road
- Description
- Migrant workers who led nomadic lifestyles, traveling from place to place as the seasons changed, were common across the United States in the early decades of the 20th century. In the 1930s, a combination of droughts, the Depression, and the increased mechanization of farming prompted a migration of small farmers and laborers from Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas to the West.
- While working for the F.S.A., Mydans encountered these migrant workers walking alongside a road carrying all of their belongings. Due to the small wages being offered in these areas, this couple was headed to another work location: "Damned if we'll work for what they pay folks hereabouts."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1936
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.009
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.009
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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