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.

In "The Wizard of Oz", Dorothy's journey from Kansas to Oz is symbolized by a shift from black and white to Technicolor.
Description
In "The Wizard of Oz", Dorothy's journey from Kansas to Oz is symbolized by a shift from black and white to Technicolor. This camera was one of several used to film the Oz scenes.
Invented in 1932, the Technicolor camera recorded on three separate negatives--red, blue and green--which were then combined to develop a full-color positive print. The box encasing the camera, a "blimp," muffled the machine's sound during filming.
The Early Color Cinema Equipment Collection [COLL.PHOTOS.000039] includes equipment, media and ephemera related to color motion pictures from the birth of the cinema to the mid twentieth century. This collection is comprised of 5 motion picture cameras, 3 movie projectors, more than 34 pieces of editing and other apparatus, more than 60 pieces of early color film and two notebooks illustrating the Technicolor process.
Reproducing natural color on film had been an industry goal since the earliest days of motion picture production, but it took several decades to perfect a technology for making movies in color. Motion picture directors often toned or hand-tinted monochromatic film in the industry’s early days to add life and emotion to their productions. Though movie producers continued to use toning and tinting, these costly and inefficient processes could never produce the full range of color that movie cameras failed to record. Therefore, innovators increasingly focused on the use of color filters during capture and projection to reproduce color detail.
Danish-American inventor August Plahn built and patented a camera and projector that split motion picture images through three color lenses using 70mm film. When the film, with three images printed across its width, was projected through the same colored filters, movies’ natural color was restored. The collection includes forty five short lengths of processed film and documents related to Plahn’s work as well as one camera, three projector heads and over seventy-five pieces of apparatus used by the engineer.
While Plahn had little success marketing his inventions, the Boston-based Technicolor Corporation effectively marketed their similar technology to become the industry standard. The color cinema collection includes four Technicolor cameras as well as over twenty-five pieces of equipment related to the Technicolor process and a book of photographs illustrating Technicolor film processing in a train car.
The Society of Motion Picture Engineers, the industry’s leading trade group, donated examples of a number of other early color film technologies, including Prizma, Kelley-line screen, Krayn Screen, Naturalcolor, Multicolor and Morgana color processes.
This finding aid is one in a series documenting the PHC’s Early Cinema Collection [COLL.PHOTOS.000018]. The cinema-related objects cover the range of technological innovation and popular appeal that defined the motion picture industry during a period in which it became the premier form of mass communication in American life, roughly 1885-1930. See also finding aids for Early Sound Cinema [COLL.PHOTOS.000040], Early Cinema Equipment [COLL.PHOTOS.000037], Early Cinema Film and Ephemera [COLL.PHOTOS.000038] and the Gatewood Dunston Collection [COLL.PHOTOS.000021].
Location
Currently not on view (running boards)
date made
1937
maker
Technicolor Corporation
ID Number
PG.008166
catalog number
8166
maker number
Patent No: 2,000,058
accession number
260112
Purple Hearts" series; handwritten on verso "Pfc. Randall Clunen, 19, of the 101st Airborne Division, was wounded December 8, 2003 in Tal Afar, Iraq when a suicide car bomber broke U.S. security lines. The explosion sent shrapnel into Clunen's face, neck and body.
Description (Brief)
Purple Hearts" series; handwritten on verso "Pfc. Randall Clunen, 19, of the 101st Airborne Division, was wounded December 8, 2003 in Tal Afar, Iraq when a suicide car bomber broke U.S. security lines. The explosion sent shrapnel into Clunen's face, neck and body. / Photographed at his home in Salem, Ohio. / February 14, 2004 / From the Purple Hearts Series
Location
Currently not on view
date printed
2021
date made
2004-02-14
maker
Berman, Nina
ID Number
2021.0057.0004
accession number
2021.0057
catalog number
2021.0057.0004
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date printed
2021
date made
2006-08-27
maker
Berman, Nina
ID Number
2021.0057.0039
catalog number
2021.0057.0039
accession number
2021.0057
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date printed
2021
date made
2008-02-20
maker
Berman, Nina
ID Number
2021.0057.0029
accession number
2021.0057
catalog number
2021.0057.0029
Eadweard Muybridge’s cyanotypes are working proofs (contact prints) made from the more than 20,000 negatives he took at the University of Pennsylvania from 1884 to 1886.
Description
Eadweard Muybridge’s cyanotypes are working proofs (contact prints) made from the more than 20,000 negatives he took at the University of Pennsylvania from 1884 to 1886. There Muybridge photographed human and animal subjects in motion from lateral (parallel), front and rear positions. For the lateral views he used up to 36 lenses in 12 to 24 cameras placed at 90-degree angles to his subjects, and he added more cameras, each holding up to 12 lenses and placed at 60-degree angles, for the front and rear “foreshortening” views.
Since the original negatives no longer exist, the cyanotypes record full images before Muybridge edited and cropped them for publication. Over 800 sets of proofs exist in the unique collection found in the Photographic History Collection of the National Museum of American History. Comparisons between Muybridge’s working cyanotype proofs and his final collotype prints prove that he freely reprinted, cropped, deleted or substituted negatives to make the assemblage of 781 collotypes in the portfolio Animal Locomotion.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0378
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0378
maker number
776
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0314
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0314
maker number
764
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1940s
maker
Signal Corps' Army Pictorial Service and Army Communications Service
ID Number
2013.0327.0219
catalog number
2013.0327.0219
accession number
2013.0327
Paper-mounted tintype studio portrait of four two pairs of men in boxing stance and another man, in a suit, standind between them; on verso, in pencil, "M Stimson / 1894."The NMAH Photo History Collection (PHC) has over 3000 tintype photographs dating from the beginnings of the p
Description (Brief)
Paper-mounted tintype studio portrait of four two pairs of men in boxing stance and another man, in a suit, standind between them; on verso, in pencil, "M Stimson / 1894."
Description
The NMAH Photo History Collection (PHC) has over 3000 tintype photographs dating from the beginnings of the process in 1856 to the present. ‘Tintype’ was coined and became the favored name.
Tintypes in the PHC are found in albums, the Kaynor Union Case collection and as individual photographs. The original tintype process patent was assigned to William and Peter Neff in 1856. William Neff died a short time later, but his son Peter, who named the process Melainotype, continued on with his work. The earliest tintypes in the PHC are a group of more than thirty Peter Neff Melainotypes, some of which date back to 1856 and contain notes written by Peter Neff. Shortly after the Melainotype, Victor Griswold introduced a very similar process on thinner, lighter iron plates and called them Ferrotypes. The PHC has tintypes ranging from rare large images between 5”x7” and 10”x12”down to small images cut to 6mm diameter to fit jewelry. The Melainotypes are between 1/6 plate and 4”x5” in size and many have indistinct images. There are also unexposed Melainotype plates including a pack of 1/6 plates and large whole-plates with four decorated oval borders that were designed to be cut into smaller quarter plates after exposure.
The great majority of tintype photographs are studio portraits, including the very popular ‘Gem’ size (about ¾” x 1”). Almost every gem tintype in the PHC is an individual head and shoulders portraits, the only exceptions seen being a full length portrait and a head and shoulders portrait of a couple. Most of these gem portraits are in small gem albums designed to hold two to six gems per page. However, several gems are mounted on cartes-de-visite (CDV) size cards and set in specifically designed album pages. Some of these CDV mounted gems are in elaborate miniature frames attached to the card. The tintypes larger than gem size show a greater variety of subject matter, but still with a main focus on individual portraits, this is especially true of the smaller 1/16 and 1/9 plate images. Outdoor tintypes are rare. Of the few in the PHC, the most common outdoor subjects noted are people standing in front of their homes and photographs of people proudly standing with, or sitting on, their horse or horses and buggy. One of the largest tintypes is a 9”x 7” outdoor view of a row of townhouses with a couple standing on one of the balconies. There is also an outdoor tintype of men fishing along with another of their days catch.
One common subject in tintype photography, as noted in text books, is the civil war soldier. The durability of the tintype meant that photographs taken in the field could be sent home. However, this category of tintype is not well represented in the PHC, with less than thirty noted due to the fact that the majority of the Smithsonian’s Civil War tintypes are located mainly in the Military History Collection. Most of the PHC examples of Civil War tintypes are in the Kaynor collection of cased images.
A few of the tintypes in the PHC are hand colored. This coloring varies from light tinting of faces and hands to heavy overpainting that obscures the underlying tintype image. A number of the tintypes (about 30) depict people with the apparatus of their occupations. Some are posed studio shots and others appear to be photographs of people at their place of work. Among the occupational views are images of a doctor, grocery deliveryman, weavers, fireman, ice delivery man, craftsman, cobbler, shoe shiners, mail carrier, surveyor, pipe liners and other tintypes of people wearing work clothes and posing with tools. These include a unique full-length gem tintype of a man in work apron with a saw.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1894
ID Number
PG.75.24.18
accession number
317967
catalog number
75.24.18
Tintype full-length studio portrait of a woman dressed as a nun holding a crucifix and leaning on a piece of furniture.The NMAH Photo History Collection (PHC) has over 3000 tintype photographs dating from the beginnings of the process in 1856 to the present.
Description (Brief)
Tintype full-length studio portrait of a woman dressed as a nun holding a crucifix and leaning on a piece of furniture.
Description
The NMAH Photo History Collection (PHC) has over 3000 tintype photographs dating from the beginnings of the process in 1856 to the present. ‘Tintype’ was coined and became the favored name.
Tintypes in the PHC are found in albums, the Kaynor Union Case collection and as individual photographs. The original tintype process patent was assigned to William and Peter Neff in 1856. William Neff died a short time later, but his son Peter, who named the process Melainotype, continued on with his work. The earliest tintypes in the PHC are a group of more than thirty Peter Neff Melainotypes, some of which date back to 1856 and contain notes written by Peter Neff. Shortly after the Melainotype, Victor Griswold introduced a very similar process on thinner, lighter iron plates and called them Ferrotypes. The PHC has tintypes ranging from rare large images between 5”x7” and 10”x12”down to small images cut to 6mm diameter to fit jewelry. The Melainotypes are between 1/6 plate and 4”x5” in size and many have indistinct images. There are also unexposed Melainotype plates including a pack of 1/6 plates and large whole-plates with four decorated oval borders that were designed to be cut into smaller quarter plates after exposure.
The great majority of tintype photographs are studio portraits, including the very popular ‘Gem’ size (about ¾” x 1”). Almost every gem tintype in the PHC is an individual head and shoulders portraits, the only exceptions seen being a full length portrait and a head and shoulders portrait of a couple. Most of these gem portraits are in small gem albums designed to hold two to six gems per page. However, several gems are mounted on cartes-de-visite (CDV) size cards and set in specifically designed album pages. Some of these CDV mounted gems are in elaborate miniature frames attached to the card. The tintypes larger than gem size show a greater variety of subject matter, but still with a main focus on individual portraits, this is especially true of the smaller 1/16 and 1/9 plate images. Outdoor tintypes are rare. Of the few in the PHC, the most common outdoor subjects noted are people standing in front of their homes and photographs of people proudly standing with, or sitting on, their horse or horses and buggy. One of the largest tintypes is a 9”x 7” outdoor view of a row of townhouses with a couple standing on one of the balconies. There is also an outdoor tintype of men fishing along with another of their days catch.
One common subject in tintype photography, as noted in text books, is the civil war soldier. The durability of the tintype meant that photographs taken in the field could be sent home. However, this category of tintype is not well represented in the PHC, with less than thirty noted due to the fact that the majority of the Smithsonian’s Civil War tintypes are located mainly in the Military History Collection. Most of the PHC examples of Civil War tintypes are in the Kaynor collection of cased images.
A few of the tintypes in the PHC are hand colored. This coloring varies from light tinting of faces and hands to heavy overpainting that obscures the underlying tintype image. A number of the tintypes (about 30) depict people with the apparatus of their occupations. Some are posed studio shots and others appear to be photographs of people at their place of work. Among the occupational views are images of a doctor, grocery deliveryman, weavers, fireman, ice delivery man, craftsman, cobbler, shoe shiners, mail carrier, surveyor, pipe liners and other tintypes of people wearing work clothes and posing with tools. These include a unique full-length gem tintype of a man in work apron with a saw.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.75.24.15
catalog number
75.24.15
accession number
317967
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium.
Description
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium. In his lectures, he pointed out that this approach to photography was important because in the hands of a photographer who “lives and understands the infinitely varied moods of nature, photography can be made to express and interpret them.” In correspondence with Dr. Olmstead at the Smithsonian, as the presentation of his gifts and bequest to the museum was being arranged, Eickemeyer wrote: “The collection illustrates the use of every important process and will, I believe, be of real educational value.”
The first of the Eickemeyer photographic collection came to the National Museum’s Department of Arts and Industries (the “Castle”), Division of Graphic Arts in 1922 at the close of a large exhibition of Eickemeyer’s work at the Anderson Gallery in New York. It was a gift from the photographer of five framed prints from the New York show that he considered representative of his work.
In 1929, Eickemeyer gave the Smithsonian 83 framed prints (including copies of the prints that he had previously given the museum), 15 portfolios, his medals and awards, and several miscellaneous photographic paraphernalia. In 1930, he made a will bequeathing most of his remaining prints, negatives, photographic equipment and other objects relating to his 30-year career as a photographer to the Smithsonian Institution.
Upon Eickemeyer’s death in 1932, an accession consisting primarily of photographic equipment from his studio came to the Smithsonian. Included in the bequest were 2 cameras, several lenses, scales, timers, printing frames, plate holders, dry mounters and a lecture case with slide projector and hand-colored lantern slides. Also included were 43 albums, journals and portfolios and assorted negatives and contact prints, many marked “discards.” There are 58 albums, notebooks and portfolios in the collection. Eickemeyer requested in his will that his gifts and bequests be called The Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Collection.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1909
maker
Eickemeyer, Jr., Rudolf
ID Number
PG.004135.B021.28
catalog number
4135.B21.28
accession number
128483
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0684
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0684
maker number
1209
From the photographer, handwritten on verso of the photographer: "Spc. Robert Acosta, 20, an ammunitions specialists with the 1st Armored Division, was wounded July 13, 2003 near Baghdad International Airport when a grenade was thrown into his vehicle and exploded.
Description (Brief)
From the photographer, handwritten on verso of the photographer: "Spc. Robert Acosta, 20, an ammunitions specialists with the 1st Armored Division, was wounded July 13, 2003 near Baghdad International Airport when a grenade was thrown into his vehicle and exploded. He lost his right hand and the use of his left leg. / Photographed at his home in Santa Ana, California April 12, 2004 / From the Purple Hearts series"
Location
Currently not on view
date printed
2021
date made
2004-04-12
maker
Berman, Nina
ID Number
2021.0057.0001
accession number
2021.0057
catalog number
2021.0057.0001
From the photographer, handwritten on the verso of the photograph: "Spc. Sam Ross, 21, a combat engineer with the 82nd Airborne Division, was wounded May 18, 2003 while disposing of munitions near Baghdad.
Description (Brief)
From the photographer, handwritten on the verso of the photograph: "Spc. Sam Ross, 21, a combat engineer with the 82nd Airborne Division, was wounded May 18, 2003 while disposing of munitions near Baghdad. He lost much of his eyesight, his left leg, and some of his hearing in the blast. / Photographed in the woods near his trailer in Dunbar Township, Pennsylvania / October 19, 2003 / From the Purple Hearts Series"
Location
Currently not on view
date printed
2021
date made
2003-10-19
maker
Berman, Nina
ID Number
2021.0057.0006
accession number
2021.0057
catalog number
2021.0057.0006
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1903
maker
Annan, James Craig
ID Number
PG.003454
accession number
67327
catalog number
3454
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0691
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0691
maker number
1227
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
maker
Powers, Mark James
ID Number
2013.0222.32
catalog number
2013.0222.32
accession number
2013.0222
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium.
Description
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium. In his lectures, he pointed out that this approach to photography was important because in the hands of a photographer who “lives and understands the infinitely varied moods of nature, photography can be made to express and interpret them.” In correspondence with Dr. Olmstead at the Smithsonian, as the presentation of his gifts and bequest to the museum was being arranged, Eickemeyer wrote: “The collection illustrates the use of every important process and will, I believe, be of real educational value.”
The first of the Eickemeyer photographic collection came to the National Museum’s Department of Arts and Industries (the “Castle”), Division of Graphic Arts in 1922 at the close of a large exhibition of Eickemeyer’s work at the Anderson Gallery in New York. It was a gift from the photographer of five framed prints from the New York show that he considered representative of his work.
In 1929, Eickemeyer gave the Smithsonian 83 framed prints (including copies of the prints that he had previously given the museum), 15 portfolios, his medals and awards, and several miscellaneous photographic paraphernalia. In 1930, he made a will bequeathing most of his remaining prints, negatives, photographic equipment and other objects relating to his 30-year career as a photographer to the Smithsonian Institution.
Upon Eickemeyer’s death in 1932, an accession consisting primarily of photographic equipment from his studio came to the Smithsonian. Included in the bequest were 2 cameras, several lenses, scales, timers, printing frames, plate holders, dry mounters and a lecture case with slide projector and hand-colored lantern slides. Also included were 43 albums, journals and portfolios and assorted negatives and contact prints, many marked “discards.” There are 58 albums, notebooks and portfolios in the collection. Eickemeyer requested in his will that his gifts and bequests be called The Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Collection.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890s
maker
Eickemeyer, Jr., Rudolf
ID Number
PG.004135.B107.23
catalog number
4135.B107.23
accession number
106456
From the Photographer, handwritten on the verso of the photograph: "Purple Hearts" series; handwritten on verso "Sgt. Jeremy Feldbusch, 24, an Army Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment, was wounded by an incoming artillery round on April 3, 2003, near the Haditha Dam in Iraq.
Description (Brief)
From the Photographer, handwritten on the verso of the photograph: "Purple Hearts" series; handwritten on verso "Sgt. Jeremy Feldbusch, 24, an Army Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment, was wounded by an incoming artillery round on April 3, 2003, near the Haditha Dam in Iraq. He lost his eye sight and suffered a tramatic brain injury. / Photographed at home in Blairsville, Pennsylvania. / October 18, 2003 / From the Purple Hearts Series"
Location
Currently not on view
date printed
2021
date made
2003-10-18
maker
Berman, Nina
ID Number
2021.0057.0008
accession number
2021.0057
catalog number
2021.0057.0008
From the photographer, handwritten on the verso of the photograph: "Spc. Jose Martinez, 20, of the 101st Airborne Division, was wounded April 5, 2003 in Karbala, Iraq when the humvee he was driving hit a roadside bomb. He suffered massive burns to his face, body and head.
Description (Brief)
From the photographer, handwritten on the verso of the photograph: "Spc. Jose Martinez, 20, of the 101st Airborne Division, was wounded April 5, 2003 in Karbala, Iraq when the humvee he was driving hit a roadside bomb. He suffered massive burns to his face, body and head. / Photographed at his home in Dalton, Georgia April 3, 2004 / From the Purple Hearts Series"
Location
Currently not on view
date printed
2021
date made
2004-04-03
maker
Berman, Nina
ID Number
2021.0057.0003
accession number
2021.0057
catalog number
2021.0057.0003
Text and photograph fromGardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by James Gardner, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.When this picture was made, the Third Corps was yet an independent organization, under the command of Gen.
Description
Text and photograph fromGardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by James Gardner, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.
When this picture was made, the Third Corps was yet an independent organization, under the command of Gen. French, whose Chief Quartermaster was Lieut. Col. J. B. Howard. The distinguishing flag of the Colonel's command, which adorns the side of his dwelling, carried the historical diamond of the Corps, in red, white, and blue, with the words "Chief Quartermaster." The adjoining canvased-roofed but was the Colonel's business office, the patched addition in front, warmed by a stove, serving the purpose of an ante-room where orderlies could wait in comfort. In the first but there was a fireplace worthy of a New England mansion house. Oak logs, supported on camp-made fire dogs, gave a cheery blaze, and spread a genial warmth through the apartment. The floor was of plank, and the ceiling of canvass. On the walls, partly covered with hanging blankets of various colors, and partly papered with illustrated weeklies, there hung maps, field glasses, arms, &c. Pine chairs of the simplest pattern, a desk full of pigeon holes, crammed with papers bound with red tape, and an iron safe, completed the list of furniture, The adjoining room was gorgeous with the luxury of a carpet, while a comfortable bed and toilet arrangements gave a homelike air to the apartment. In these quarters the Colonel's wife and little daughter found sufficient attraction to detain them several weeks; and round the blazing hearth, on many a sullen winter night, the ennui of camp were forgotten in pleasant re-unions of the General's staff.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1863-12
maker
Gardner, Alexander
ID Number
1986.0711.0283.02
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0283.02
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0664
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0664
maker number
1157
A photomontage of daguerreotypes including 4 portrait prints, and images of 2 pitchers, 2 books, pieces of glassware, funnel from the Dr. John W. Draper Collection. Dr. Draper worked at New York University in 1840 when he was associated with Samuel F. B.
Description
A photomontage of daguerreotypes including 4 portrait prints, and images of 2 pitchers, 2 books, pieces of glassware, funnel from the Dr. John W. Draper Collection. Dr. Draper worked at New York University in 1840 when he was associated with Samuel F. B. Morse and the earliest photographic experiments in the United States. Draper produced the first portrait photograph in America, a portrait of his sister Dorothy Catherine, as well as scientific photomicrograph daguerreotypes of spectrum and frog's blood photographed through a microscope. With the assistance of his sons, he captured early photographs of the moon. Our collection also includes Draper's equipment and a large variety of photographs, both daguerreotype, albumen, and cyanotype (blue) prints from the 1840s to the 1860s donated by the photographer's family. This image is matted, not cased.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840
photographer
Draper, John William
maker
Draper, John William
ID Number
PG.72.72.B154
catalog number
72.72.B154
accession number
304826
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium.
Description
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium. In his lectures, he pointed out that this approach to photography was important because in the hands of a photographer who “lives and understands the infinitely varied moods of nature, photography can be made to express and interpret them.” In correspondence with Dr. Olmstead at the Smithsonian, as the presentation of his gifts and bequest to the museum was being arranged, Eickemeyer wrote: “The collection illustrates the use of every important process and will, I believe, be of real educational value.”
The first of the Eickemeyer photographic collection came to the National Museum’s Department of Arts and Industries (the “Castle”), Division of Graphic Arts in 1922 at the close of a large exhibition of Eickemeyer’s work at the Anderson Gallery in New York. It was a gift from the photographer of five framed prints from the New York show that he considered representative of his work.
In 1929, Eickemeyer gave the Smithsonian 83 framed prints (including copies of the prints that he had previously given the museum), 15 portfolios, his medals and awards, and several miscellaneous photographic paraphernalia. In 1930, he made a will bequeathing most of his remaining prints, negatives, photographic equipment and other objects relating to his 30-year career as a photographer to the Smithsonian Institution.
Upon Eickemeyer’s death in 1932, an accession consisting primarily of photographic equipment from his studio came to the Smithsonian. Included in the bequest were 2 cameras, several lenses, scales, timers, printing frames, plate holders, dry mounters and a lecture case with slide projector and hand-colored lantern slides. Also included were 43 albums, journals and portfolios and assorted negatives and contact prints, many marked “discards.” There are 58 albums, notebooks and portfolios in the collection. Eickemeyer requested in his will that his gifts and bequests be called The Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Collection.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1887
maker
Eickemeyer, Jr., Rudolf
ID Number
PG.004135.B109.03
catalog number
4135.B109.3
accession number
106456
Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by David Knox, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.The monotony of camp life was relieved by every variety of amusement that was known, or could be devised.
Description
Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by David Knox, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.
The monotony of camp life was relieved by every variety of amusement that was known, or could be devised. During the periods of inactivity, base ball, cricket, gymnastics, foot races, &c., were indulged in to a great extent, and on holidays horse races, foot races, and other games were allowed. Sometimes the men would put up a greased pole, with a prize on the top, for anyone who succeeded in climbing up to it, and not unfrequently a pig would be turned loose with a shaved and greased tail, for the men to catch. Any grip but a "tail hold" was illegitimate, but he who seized and held the pig by this appendage, carried it off in triumph to his mess.
Cock fighting, however, was quite unusual, and seldom permitted, except when some of the contrabands incited their captured Shanghais, or more ignoble fowls, to combat. Such displays were always ludicrous, and were generally exhibited for the amusement of the mess for whom the feathered bipeds were intended. Horses and mules perished by hundreds from ill-usage, but with thin exception it would be exceedingly difficult to cite an instance of cruelty to animals in the army. Fowls, dogs, kittens, and even wild animals, were made pets of, and were cared for most tenderly. Sometimes a regiment would adopt a dog, and woe to the individual who ventured to maltreat it. Several of the Western regiments carried pet bears with them, and one regiment was accompanied by a tame eagle in all its campaigns.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1864-08
maker
Gardner, Alexander
ID Number
1986.0711.0283.26
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0283.26

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