Photography

Leica 35mm Camera

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.

Topic: Photography

"Animal Locomotion. Plate 162."; Male, Jumping; standing broad jump

date made
1887
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.002570B
catalog number
2570B
accession number
65115

Prairie flowers

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.B108.20
catalog number
4135.B108.20
accession number
106456

Washington Monument

Press print; aerial view of the Washington MonumentCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
Press print; aerial view of the Washington Monument
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2013.0327.0375
catalog number
2013.0327.0375
accession number
2013.0327

Rising from chair, stooping and lifting handkerchief

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0198
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0198
maker number
797

T.C Grey

T.C. Grey, carte-de-visite, by unknown photographer, c.1860sT. C. Grey was a civilian newspaper reporter during the war. Originally from Middletown in Dutchess County, New York, Grey established himself as a newsman.
Description
T.C. Grey, carte-de-visite, by unknown photographer, c.1860s
T. C. Grey was a civilian newspaper reporter during the war. Originally from Middletown in Dutchess County, New York, Grey established himself as a newsman. During the Civil War, he was in the field with the Army of the Potomac as a special correspondent for the New York Tribune. He was associated with a group of men called the Bohemian Brigad-a band of journalists, photographers, and artists who were reporting back to newspapers, from the thick of the war. Before the war, he was a clerk for the U.S. Treasury. After the war, he became a successful civilian journalist for the Republican in Washington, D.C., managing editor of the Chronicle, city editor of the Star, and a member of the editorial staff of the Philadelphia Press. At the time of his death in 1885, he was writing for the Washington Post. In his personal life, Grey was married, but did not have children. His death was attributed to congested lungs and pneumonia. Grey passed away on April 2, 1885 at age 55.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861-1865
depicted (sitter)
Grey, T. C.
maker
unknown
ID Number
PG.003955G
catalog number
3955G
accession number
117896

photograph

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2001-09
maker
Rogers, Jane
ID Number
2011.0177.31
catalog number
2011.0177.31
accession number
2011.0177

Portrait of P.T. Barnum

P.T. Barnum got the blues (handwritten text on front); Portrait of portly man with curly hair; gold edges; Studio: Unidentified Cond: Fair; fading; slightly worn.Currently not on view
Description
P.T. Barnum got the blues (handwritten text on front); Portrait of portly man with curly hair; gold edges; Studio: Unidentified Cond: Fair; fading; slightly worn.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1860's-1870's
depicted
Barnum, P. T.
maker
unknown
ID Number
1995.0231.115
catalog number
1995.0231.115
accession number
1995.0231

The Capitol

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Flax, Florence P.
ID Number
1998.0059.0022
catalog number
1998.0059.0022
accession number
1998.0059

former presidents and first ladies at President Barak Obama's Swearing in Ceremony

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2009-01-20
depicted (sitter)
Carter, Jimmy
Carter, Rosalynn
Bush, George, H. W.
Bush, Barbara
Clinton, Bill
Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Bush, Laura Welch
maker
Morse, Paul
ID Number
2010.0179.02
catalog number
2010.0179.02
accession number
2010.0179

Motocross rider

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2015.0039.13
catalog number
2015.0039.13
accession number
2015.0039

Woman in uniform standing in front of a monument

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1940s
ID Number
2017.0309.0017
accession number
2017.0309
catalog number
2017.0309.0017

Braceros at Movie Theater

Photograph: Braceros stand at the entrance to a movie theater in Watsonville, California.Currently not on view
Description
Photograph: Braceros stand at the entrance to a movie theater in Watsonville, California.
Location
Currently not on view
date photographed
1956
photographer
Nadel, Leonard
ID Number
2004.0138.29.42
accession number
2004.0138
catalog number
2004.0138.29.42

Braceros Receiving Documents

Photograph: An official distributes documents among braceros outside of the San Joaquin County Farm Production Association building in Stockton, California.Currently not on view
Description
Photograph: An official distributes documents among braceros outside of the San Joaquin County Farm Production Association building in Stockton, California.
Location
Currently not on view
date photographed
1956
photographer
Nadel, Leonard
ID Number
2004.0138.39.24
accession number
2004.0138
catalog number
2004.0138.39.24

Mrs. George J. Gould

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
1912
maker
Eickemeyer, Jr., Rudolf
ID Number
PG.004135.A04
catalog number
4135.A4
accession number
128483

Lynn Fontanne in "At Mrs. Beam's"

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1926
maker
Muray, Nickolas
ID Number
2013.0327.1565
catalog number
2013.0327.1565
accession number
2013.0327

Conductor Mstislav Rostropovich

Conductor Mstislav Rostropovich during a rehearsal, Kennedy Center Concert Hall, October 1977.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Conductor Mstislav Rostropovich during a rehearsal, Kennedy Center Concert Hall, October 1977.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1977-10
maker
Walker, Diana
ID Number
2003.0250.131
accession number
2003.0250
catalog number
2003.0250.131

Two Young Men Posing in New Pants

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1986.3048.0905
catalog number
1986.3048.0905
nonaccession number
1986.3048

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.1576
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.1576

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.1994
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.1994

Newsstand, 32nd St. and 3rd Ave.

Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Newsstand, 32nd St. and 3rd Ave." Magazine stand with predominantly women's magazines.
Description (Brief)
Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Newsstand, 32nd St. and 3rd Ave." Magazine stand with predominantly women's magazines. Coca cola ad top right in which woman in white swimsuit is holding a cola bottle; large sign in top left/center advertising cigars, smaller signs for ice-cream, milk and soda top left. Candy bars at bottom right beneath cash register. Verso: Stamp, "Photograph, Berenice Abbott, Maine 04406;" Recto: signed by the artist.
Description
During the 1920s, Berenice Abbott was one of the premier portrait photographers of Paris, her only competitor was the equally well-known Dada Surrealist Man Ray who had served as her mentor and employer before she launched her own career. An American expatriate, Abbott enjoyed the company of some of the great twentieth century writers and artists, photographing individuals such as Jean Cocteau, Peggy Guggenheim and James Joyce. One of the critical elements of Abbott’s portraiture was a desire to neither enhance nor interfere with the sitter. She instead wished to allow the personality of her subject to dictate the form of the photograph, and would often sit with her clients for several hours before she even began to photograph them. This straight-forward approach to photography characterized Abbott’s work for the duration of her career.
Thematically and technically, Abbott’s work can be most closely linked to documentary photographer Eugène Atget (COLL.PHOTOS.000016), who photographed Paris during the early 1900s. Abbott bought a number of his prints the first time she saw them, and even asked him to set some aside that she planned to purchase when she had enough money. After his death in 1927, Abbott took it upon herself to publicize Atget’s work to garner the recognition it deserved. It was partly for this reason she returned to the United States in 1928, hoping to find an American publisher to produce an English-language survey of Atget’s work. Amazed upon her arrival to see the changes New York had undergone during her stay in Paris, and eager to photograph the emerging new metropolis, Abbott decided to pack up her lucrative Parisian portrait business and move back to New York.
The status and prestige she enjoyed in Paris, however, did not carry over to New York. Abbott did not fit in easily with her contemporaries. She was both a woman in a male-dominated field and a documentary photographer in the midst of an American photographic world firmly rooted in Pictorialism. Abbott recalls disliking the work of both photographer Alfred Stieglitz and his then protégé Paul Strand when she first visited their exhibitions in New York. Stieglitz, along with contemporaries such as Ansel Adams and Edward Steichen, tended to romanticize the American landscape and effectively dismissed Abbott’s straight photography as she saw it. Not only was Atget’s work rejected by the Pictorialists, but a series of critical comments she made towards Stieglitz and Pictorialism cost Abbott her professional career as a photographer. Afterwards, she was unable to secure space at galleries, have her work shown at museums or continue the working relationships she had forged with a number of magazine publications.
In 1935, the Federal Art Project outfitted Abbott with equipment and a staff to complete her project to photograph New York City. The benefit of a personal staff and the freedom to determine her own subject matter was unique among federally funded artists working at that time. The resulting series of photographs, which she titled Changing New York, represent some of Abbott’s best-known work. Her photographs of New York remain one of the most important twentieth century pictorial records of New York City. Abbott went on to produce a series of photographs for varied topics, including scientific textbooks and American suburbs. When the equipment was insufficient to meet her photographic needs, as in the case of her series of science photographs, she invented the tools she needed to achieve the desired effect. In the course of doing so, Abbott patented a number of useful photographic aids throughout her career including an 8x10 patent camera (patent #2869556) and a photographer’s jacket. Abbott also spent twenty years teaching photography classes at the New School for Social Research alongside such greats as composer Aaron Copland and writer W.E.B. DuBois.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Abbott’s career was the printing of Eugène Atget’s photographs, one of the few instances in which one well-known photographer printed a large number of negatives made by another well-known photographer. The struggle to get Atget’s photographs the recognition they deserved was similar to Abbott’s efforts to chart her own path by bringing documentary photography to the fore in a Pictorialist dominated America. Though she experienced varying levels of rejection and trials in both efforts, her perseverance placed her in the position she now holds as one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.
The Bernice Abbott collection consists of sixteen silver prints. The photographs represent a range of work Abbott produced during her lifetime, including her early portraiture work in Paris, her Changing New York series, Physics and Route 1, U.S.A. series.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1935-11-19
maker
Abbott, Berenice
ID Number
PG.69.216.07
accession number
288852
catalog number
69.216.07

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.3353
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.3353

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.3355
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.3355

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.1190
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.1190

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.2181
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.2181

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