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 4 items.
- No Image Available
Everett H. Bickley Collection, 1919-1980 (bulk 1919-1965)
- Notes
- Bickley was one of the more active inventors of twentieth century. While his main and most portable invention was an automatic bean sorter, his other inventions were numerous and wide in scope. Examples are: a photographic exposure meter; fly killing device; dance charts; nut-cracking device; and outdoor electric sign
- Summary
- Correspondence, patents, drawings, manuals, trade literature, and photographs, particularly rich in information on Bickley's sorting devices. World War II innovations, and other inventions such as an exposure meter, dance charts, fly-killing device, and an outdoor electric sign known as the Motograph
- Spans much of the twenthieth century and is of value to researchers interested in product development, the patent application process, product marketing and promotion, World War II innovation, and the daily operation of a small, privately owned industry. General correspondence, patents and patent correspondence, drawings, manuals, trade literature, and photographs; also, several artifacts designed by Bickley, including a photographic exposure meter (Fotimer), a prototype slide mount (Color Tight Slide Mount), dance chart, and even a clipboard (Deskette)
- Cite as
- The Everett H. Bickley Collection, 1919-1980, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1919
- 1919-1980
- bulk 1919-1965
- 20th century
- 1930-1950
- creator
- Bickley, Everett H. 1888- 1972
- donor
- Beyer, Audrey Bickley
- Subject
- Bickley Manufacturing Company
- H. J. Heinz Company
- Local number
- 1999.3022 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Photography (series title), circa 1850-1977
- Summary
- Consists primarily of catalogs, advertisements, correspondence, price lists, invoices and receipts, stationery, advertising cards, reports, photographs, circulars, leaflets, contracts, product manuals, periodicals, books, handbooks, guides, patents and order forms from manufacturers and dealers of photographic supplies and equipment. Products represented include film, burnishing tools, cameras, lenses, photographic chemicals, magic lanterns, stereopticons and slides, photographic paper, daguerrotype equipment, pressing machines and dry plates. Numerous illustrations and images are present
- Cite as
- Photography, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, box ##, folder ###, digital file number ####
- Date
- 1850
- 1977
- circa 1850-1977
- collector
- Warshaw, Isadore d. 1969
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
National Photographic Society Records, 1942-1986
- Notes
- Amateur camera club, Washington, D.C.; several of its exhibitions were held at the Smithsonian and some members' photographs are in the NMAH Photographic History Collection. Organized March 14, 1938 as the Revenue Camera Club, the organization changed its name to the National Photographic Society, April 1, 1943. Apparently the club held its last meeting and dissolved Nov. 14, 1986
- Summary
- Minutes of meetings, membership records, membership applications, exhibition stickers, correspondence, copies of constitution and drafts of constitution and by-laws, etc.; snapshot photographs (prints and negatives) of club events; copies of club newsletter, "The Finder," financial reports, etc
- Includes documents concerning the National Photographic Society's affiliations with the Greater Washington Council of Camera Clubs and the Photographic Society of America
- Cite as
- National Photographic Society Records, 1942-1986, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1942
- 1986
- 1942-1986
- 1940-1990
- 1940-2000
- 20th century
- 1900-2000
- creator
- National Photographic Society
- donor
- Schroeder, Barbara
- creator
- Revenue Camera Club
- Subject
- Photographic History, Division of (NMAH, SI)
- Greater Washington Council of Camera Clubs
- Photographic Society of America
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Glen Fishback Papers and Photographs, ca. 1930-1976
- Notes
- Fishback began his professional career in 1937 as a staff photographer for the Sacramento (California) Bee; ran a portrait and commercial studio for 17 years, with work appearing in national publications; in 1956 sold studio and worked as free-lance photographer for 5 years. In 1958, flew over the Far East with the U.S. Air Force as a brigadier general on a special assignment sponsored by U.S. Camera magazine, Ansco, Rolleiflex, and the Air Force. In the 1970s Fishback and his wife established the Glen Fishback School of Photography in Sacramento, and developed an exposure system for Pentax spotmeters. Many of his advertising clients over the years were photographic manufacturers, such as Ansco, Kodak, Kalart, Rolleiflex, etc. His pictures demonstrated the kind of photography possible with the client's products
- Fishback also wrote technical and popular articles for photographic magazines and publications
- The donor was one of Fishback's favorite models as a child. Her face appeared in many of his photographs and later on magazine covers
- Summary
- Original photographic negatives, prints (black-and-white and color), and color slides and transparencies by Fishback, reflecting his career in advertising, calendar, and editorial photography; drafts of articles and correspondence by Fishback (typescripts), and incoming correspondence; copies of publications, such as magazines and annual reports, with reproductions
- Subjects of the photographs include children, sports, circuses, landscapes, industrial, female nudes and glamour, etc. Many of Fishback's nude studies were used in advertisements for photographic products as well as in magazine articles. Most of his pictures have cheerful, optimistic themes or subjects, such as his laughing daughter, Judy, posing with circus clowns, etc
- Publications
- Several of Fishback's circus images were reproduced in "The Circus, 1870-1950," Noel, Daniel, ed., Taschen Books, 2008, pp. 53, 61, 62, 63, 315, 370, 388, 425, 546, and 588
- Cite as
- Glen Fishback Papers and Photographs, 1930-1990, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of Judy White
- Date
- 1930
- 1976
- ca 1930-1976
- 20th century
- 1970-1980
- author
- Fishback, Glen Curtis 1912-1976
- donor
- White, Judy
- creator
- Glen Fishback School of Photography
- advertiser
- Kalart
- Ansco
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Local number
- 1999.3084 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH