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 935 items.
Page 1 of 94
[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
[Press cutting regarding Robert Scurlock's exhibition of work, 1961, copy negative : cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- Copy negative of press cutting regarding the selection of Robert Scurlock's photograph for exhibition at the 70th Annual Exposition of Professional Photography and the 9th National Industrial Photographic Conference in New York, 1961. No ink on negative. "KODAK - - SAFETY - - FILM" edge imprint. No Scurlock number
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1961
- 1960-1970
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Subject
- Scurlock, Robert S [Saunders] 1917-1994
- Local number
- Box 618.04.90
- AC0618.004.0000969.tif (scan number)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Xerox 914 Plain Paper Copier
- Description
- Introduced in 1959, the Xerox 914 plain paper copier revolutionized the document-copying industry. The culmination of inventor Chester Carlson's work on the xerographic process, the 914 was fast and economical. One of the most successful Xerox products ever, a 914 model could make 100,000 copies per month. In 1985, the Smithsonian received this machine, number 517 off the assembly line. It weighs 648 pounds and measures 42" high x 46" wide x 45" deep.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1960
- maker
- Haloid Xerox Corporation
- ID Number
- 1985.0669.01
- catalog number
- 1985.0669.01
- accession number
- 1985.0669
- catalog number
- 85.669.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Day of Kennedy's Assassination - Commuters on the 6:25 train
- Description
- By the fall of 1963, President Kennedy and his political advisers were preparing for the next presidential campaign. Although he had not formally announced his candidacy, it was clear that Kennedy was going to run for office and he seemed confident about his chances for reelection. On November 22, riding in a motorcade procession through downtown Dallas, Kennedy was shot.
- According to the New York Times obituary of Mydans, Carl was one of the last photographers to reach LIFE magazine's offices after Kennedy's assassination. Since he was not awarded a clear assignment, Mydans wandered over to Grand Central Station and, on a whim, boarded a train north, headed to Stamford, Connecticut. The emotional intensity of the moment captured in this picture helped make it one of his most memorable images from all his years with LIFE.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1963
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.158
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.158
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Remains on Bikini Island
- Description
- The 1960s found Carl Mydans back in the Philippines with MacArthur, as well as other locations in the Pacific. In 1968, Mydans returned to Bikini with a team of experts who were conducting tests on the now-abandoned island. While the islanders had struggled to cope with their exile, Bikini had been destroyed.
- In 1954, the Air Force and Army began preparations for a new series of testing that would include the first air-deliverable hydrogen bomb (codename: Bravo) ever detonated by the United States Operation Castle. In its aftermath, islanders and Americans alike were exposed to ash that caused illnesses symptomatic of radiation poisoning, such as skin lesions, hair loss, and the eventual development of cancer.
- Twenty-two years after Operation Crossroads was set in motion, President Lyndon B. Johnson promised the Bikini natives, by then living in Kili, that they could return to their islands. In an effort to assure the islanders that its clean-up efforts were successful, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issued a statement that said: "There's virtually no radiation left and we can find no discernible effect on either plant or animal life." By 1978, however, the people of Bikini were once again evacuated because of high levels of radioactive cesium and strontium in the water and in the soil.
- Though Bikini is not available for the natives to live on, it has not been abandoned. The lagoon of the Bikini Atoll, where the wrecks of over 90 American and Japanese warships lie under about 100 feet of water, has become an exclusive diving spot for tourists from the United States and Japan since 1992. After much planning and construction, Bikini Atoll opened to visitors in June 1996 to provide an economic base for a possible future resettlement of Bikini.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1968
- maker
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.161
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.161
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Carl Mydans in Vietnam
- Description
- In 1968, Carl Mydans, then in his sixties, continued traveling the globe and documenting history as it developed. That year, it meant going to Vietnam and covering yet another war.
- Sometimes people have asked me why I devoted so much of my life to covering these terrible scenes, these disasters, these wars. And there is an important reason. When I began as a photojournalist I was interested in the history that was developing around me and war is one of those stories.
- I want to make it clear it is not because I liked war. They were awful periods. I have often been in places where it was so terrible, where I was so frightened, where I could criticize myself for being there by saying what are you doing, why are you here? The answer has always been that what I am doing is important, and that's why I am here. I am making a record of historic times.
- Carl Mydans
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1968
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.163
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.163
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Addison N. Scurlock at work making a portrait in his studio, 900 U St. N.W. Wash. D.C. [photoprint], about 1957 [sic]
- Summary
- Scurlock is adjusting a light on a young male subject. Print, on a single-weight paper, is captioned as above, and also bears a studio stamp
- Date
- 1951
- about 1957 sic
- 20th century
- 1950-1960
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Subject
- Scurlock, Addison N. 1883-1964
- Local number
- 2008-4914 (SI Neg.)
- AC0618.001.0000017.tif (AC Scan no.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
