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 2168 items.
Page 1 of 217
Morse Daguerreotype Camera
- Description
- Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1872), an artist and inventor of the telegraph, was in Paris in 1839 sharing the scientific and celebrity stage with Daguerre. The two inventors shared notes on their inventions and Morse returned to the US with a camera, perhaps the first camera in the United States. Morse, whose photographic endeavors would be limited, inspired and taught a number of men who would become important photographers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1839-1840
- user
- Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
- Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mande
- maker
- Prosch, George W.
- ID Number
- PG*000004
- accession number
- 20341
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mercury fuming box for daguerreotypes used by Samuel F. B. Morse
- Description
- The Photographic History Collection holds the photography equipment originally made for Samuel Morse by George W. Prosch (Morse's instrument maker) following Morse's return from visiting with inventor Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre in 1839. This Mercury fuming box for developing daguerreotypes is certainly among the earliest photographic equipment used in America, dating 1839-1840. Working closely with Dr. J.W. Draper in New York, Morse was instrumental in promoting photography in America, furthering experimentation, and producing early examples of the daguerreotypes.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1840
- maker
- Prosch, George W.
- ID Number
- PG*0005
- catalog number
- 5
- accession number
- 20341
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Autochrome Portrait
- Description
- William H. Towles, active from 1890 into the 1930s, is said to have made Washington, D.C.'s first autochrome. Autochromes are among the first commercially successful forms of color photography. The color dyes in the photographs are held by potato starch.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1908
- 1908-01
- maker
- Towles, William H.
- ID Number
- PG*003900
- accession number
- 107614
- catalog number
- 3900
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Muybridge Patent Model
- Description
- A pioneer in the development of the photography of motion, 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge worked to photograph humans or animals in motion. Muybridge's patent for the Method and Apparatus for Photographing Objects in Motion (No. 212, 865, Patented March 4, 1879) documented Muybridge's sliding-shutter mechanism and background panel used to photograph a horse in rapid motion "in order to determine the posture, position, and relation of their limbs in different proportions of their step or stride." The patent model is built in two different scales, showing the camera slides at one side and the track/grid background concept (with heavy thread trip cord) on the other. The horse would travel between them.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1879
- maker
- Muybridge, Eadweard
- ID Number
- PG*0754
- catalog number
- 754
- accession number
- 48866
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Platt Babbitt Daguerreotype of Niagara Falls
- Description
- This whole-plate hand-colored daguerreotype by Platt D. Babbitt shows tourists at Horseshoe Falls, Niagara Falls, New York, circa 1854-1870. Babbitt established himself as a professional photographer on the American side of Niagara Falls in 1853. He built a pavilion for his camera to take photographs of visiting groups, without the tourists' knowing. Babbitt finished his daguerreotypes, unique positive photographs made on silver-coated copper plates, and offered them for sale before groups left. He ran this lucrative business for almost two decades.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1850
- maker
- Babbitt, Platt D.
- ID Number
- PG*71.21.09
- catalog number
- 71.21.09
- accession number
- 299134
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Daguerreotype of Unitarian Congregational Church, New York City
- Description
- Daguerreotype of Unitarian Congregational Church, New York City. On the Washington Square campus of the New York University, Samuel F.B. Morse and Dr. John W. Draper operated together one of the first American photographic studios for a short time, from 1839 to the early 1840s. Collaborating on this quarter-plate daguerreotype, the partners achieved a clear photograph of the Unitarian Congregational Church of the Messiah, on the east side of Broadway across Waverly Place, New York City, from their rooftop studio in the fall of 1839 or winter of 1840. Morse quickly refocused his professional career on the perfection of a working telegraph, while Dr. Draper continued to work in scientific photography with his sons for the remainder of his academic career at the University.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1840
- photographer
- Draper, John William
- ID Number
- PG*72.72.B155
- catalog number
- 72.72.B155
- accession number
- 304826
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 Press Camera
- Description
- Graflex cameras, made by the Folmer Schwing Company of Rochester, New York (later purchased by Eastman Kodak) were the preferred cameras of photojournalists and wartime correspondents for much of the early to mid-twentieth century. Their sturdy handheld construction adapted well for news and sports photography. The U.S. Department of the Army even commissioned combat-green versions of the Graflex cameras for use by military photographers in World War II and Korea. This popular Speed Graphic 4x5 inch film press camera was produced in the 1940s.
- From its invention in 1839, the camera has evolved to fit many needs, from aerial to underwater photography and everything in between. Cameras allow both amateur and professional photographers to capture the world around us. The Smithsonian’s historic camera collection includes rare and unique examples as well as popular models.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1940s
- maker
- Graflex, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1978.0234.01
- catalog number
- 1978.0234.01
- accession number
- 1978.0234
- catalog number
- 78.001
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kodak Baby Brownie Special Camera
- Description
- Popular from the 1939 World’s Fair into the 1950s, the Kodak Baby Brownie Special was a small black camera made of bakelite, with white shutter button and winding knob and featuring a braided strap. With a rigid view finder and focus-free lens, it produced eight 3¼ x 3 inch photographs from 127 film.
- From its invention in 1839, the camera has evolved to fit many needs, from aerial to underwater photography and everything in between. Cameras allow both amateur and professional photographers to capture the world around us. The Smithsonian’s historic camera collection includes rare and unique examples as well as popular models.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1950s
- maker
- Eastman Kodak Company
- ID Number
- 1979.0007.04
- catalog number
- 1979.0007.04
- accession number
- 1979.0007
- catalog number
- 79.007.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
ANSCO Pioneer Camera
- Description
- In the 1970s the GAF Corporation donated their historic camera collection to the Smithsonian. GAF was a film-based photographic supplies company which had a long history of purchasing other photographic business. GAF was the successor to the German based AGFA ASNCO and had U.S. headquarters in Binghamton, New York. Through AGFA ANSCO the company also held historic early photographic equipment from the important American camera makers Anthony and Scovill. This ANSCO Pioneer plastic and metal camera was produced from 1947-1953 and used 616 film.
- From its invention in 1839, the camera has evolved to fit many needs, from aerial to underwater photography and everything in between. Cameras allow both amateur and professional photographers to capture the world around us. The Smithsonian’s historic camera collection includes rare and unique examples of equipment, and popular models, related to the history of the science, technology, and art of photography.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1947-1953
- maker
- Ansco
- ID Number
- 1982.0390.125.1
- catalog number
- 1982.0390.125.1
- accession number
- 1982.0390
- catalog number
- 82.390.125.1
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
ANSCO Cadet Reflex with Flash
- Description
- In the 1970s the GAF Corporation donated their historic camera collection to the Smithsonian. GAF was a film based photographic supplies company which had a long history of purchasing other photographic business. GAF was the successor to the German based AGFA ASNCO and had U.S. headquarters in Binghamton, New York. Through AGFA ANSCO the company also held historic early photographic equipment from the important American camera makers Anthony and Scovill. This ANSCO Cadet Reflex camera with flash is just one of their plastic camera models for 127 film produced around 1960.
- From its invention in 1839, the camera has evolved to fit many needs, from aerial to underwater photography and everything in between. Cameras allow both amateur and professional photographers to capture the world around us. The Smithsonian’s historic camera collection includes rare and unique examples of equipment, and popular models, related to the history of the science, technology and art of photography.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- Ansco
- ID Number
- 1982.0390.154
- catalog number
- 1982.0390.154
- accession number
- 1982.0390
- catalog number
- 82.390.154
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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