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.

Date: 1940s

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

Richard Avedon in Washington, 1945

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1945
depicted (sitter)
Avedon, Richard
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.006990
catalog number
6990
accession number
246871

Beech Tree I

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1945
maker
Morgan, Barbara
ID Number
PG.69.217.01
accession number
288025
catalog number
69.217.01

Frank Sinatra

Nickolas Muray color carbro photograph of Frank Sinatra for Modern Screen Magazine ca. 1940s. Sinatra is in a suit with a burgandy tie and white carnation on his lapel. Behind him, there are floating records.
Description (Brief)
Nickolas Muray color carbro photograph of Frank Sinatra for Modern Screen Magazine ca. 1940s. Sinatra is in a suit with a burgandy tie and white carnation on his lapel. Behind him, there are floating records. Editing marks in pencil are drawn directly onto the photograph.
Recto: Signed by the artist in lower right corner (pencil). Mount verso: "Frank Sinatra No. 17" (pencil).
The photograph is mounted on Monogram Illustration Board. Photograph appeared on the cover of the January 1947 issue of Modern Screen.
Description
Nickolas Muray was born in Szeged, Hungary on February 15, 1892. Twelve years after his birth, Muray left his native town and enrolled in a graphic arts school in Budapest. Enrolling in art school was the first step on a road that would eventually lead him to study a photographic printing process called three-color carbro. In the course of his accomplished career, Muray would become an expert in this process and play a key role in bringing color photography to America.
While attending art school in Budapest, Muray studied lithography and photoengraving, earning an International Engraver's Certificate. Muray was also introduced to photography during this time period. His combined interest in photography and printmaking led him to Berlin, Germany to participate in a three-year color-photoengraving course. In Berlin, Muray learned how to make color filters, a first step in the craft that would one day become his trademark. Immediately after the completion of the course, Muray found a good job with a publishing company in Ullstein, Germany. However, the threat of war in Europe forced Muray to flee for America in 1913. Soon after his arrival in New York, Muray was working as a photoengraver for Condé Nast. His specialty was color separations and half-tone negatives.
By 1920, Muray had established a home for himself in the up-and-coming artists' haven of Greenwich Village. He opened a portrait studio out of his apartment and continued to work part time at his engraving job. Harper's Bazaar magazine gave Muray his first big assignment in 1921. The project was to photograph Broadway star Florence Reed. The magazine was so impressed with his photographs that they began to publish his work monthly. This allowed him to give up his part time job and work solely as a photographer. It did not take long for Muray to become one of the most renowned portrait photographers in Manhattan. Muray spent much of the early 1920s photographing the most famous and important personalities in New York at the time.
In his spare time Muray enjoyed fencing. In 1927, he won the National Sabre Championship and in 1928 and 1932, he was on the United States Olympic Team. During World War II, Muray was a flight lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1947
depicted
Sinatra, Frank
maker
Muray, Nickolas
ID Number
PG.007917
catalog number
7917
accession number
258415

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1944-1945
depicted (sitter)
Churchill, Winston
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
ID Number
2013.0327.1150
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.1150

Woman in uniform standing in front of sign

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1940s
ID Number
2017.0309.0043
accession number
2017.0309
catalog number
2017.0309.0043

World Map

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1945
ID Number
2013.0327.0723
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0723

Ann Sheridan in "It All Came True"

Ann Sheridan in It All Came True by George Hurrell, gelatin silver print.Currently not on view
Description
Ann Sheridan in It All Came True by George Hurrell, gelatin silver print.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940
copyright holder
Warner Bros. Studios
ID Number
2013.0327.1439
catalog number
2013.0327.1439
accession number
2013.0327

Soldier leaning against Wrangler

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1945
ID Number
2016.0143.06
catalog number
2016.0143.06
accession number
2016.0143

Man driving wagon through surf

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1949
maker
Ruohomaa, Kosti
ID Number
PG.007306
catalog number
7306
accession number
252971

Two Carpenters in Hamburg

Press print; two men standing along waterfront; holding fabric bags ("Elbe" visible on one) with a wooden beams sticking out of themCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
Press print; two men standing along waterfront; holding fabric bags ("Elbe" visible on one) with a wooden beams sticking out of them
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930s-1940s
ID Number
2013.0327.0596
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0596

Camp Denver Theater

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940s
ID Number
2013.0327.0895
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0895

Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden, Munich

Press print; man seated at a table in a courtyard, smoking a pipe, mug on table in front of him; other people milling around, seated at tables, walking or seated on a low stone wallCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
Press print; man seated at a table in a courtyard, smoking a pipe, mug on table in front of him; other people milling around, seated at tables, walking or seated on a low stone wall
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930s-1940s
ID Number
2013.0327.0588
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0588

Interior of Transport Plane Plant

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1945
ID Number
2013.0327.0521
catalog number
2013.0327.0521
accession number
2013.0327

Indicted Editor Confers with Attorney

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
maker
Associated Press
ID Number
2013.0327.0835
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0835

Nancy Newhall

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1942
maker
Morgan, Barbara
ID Number
PG.74.22
accession number
314539
catalog number
74.22

Farming in Iowa

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940s
ID Number
2013.0327.1071
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.1071

Polaroid Land Camera Model 95

Polaroid Land Camera Model 95. First unit to come off the assembly line when the Polaroid Land camera began production in the fall of 1948. It is inscribed with the initials E. H. L. and presented to Edwin H. Land, inventor of the camera and president of Polaroid.
Description (Brief)
Polaroid Land Camera Model 95. First unit to come off the assembly line when the Polaroid Land camera began production in the fall of 1948. It is inscribed with the initials E. H. L. and presented to Edwin H. Land, inventor of the camera and president of Polaroid. The camera's name reflects its manufacturer's suggested retail price of $95. The lens is a fixed f/11, 135 mm model. Shutter has T and I modes. Metal and brown leather body with metal fixtures and leather bellows. Direct-vision view-finder with post on front top. Camera used Polaroid print paper to make near-instant 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" prints.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1948
maker
Polaroid Corporation
ID Number
PG.007489
accession number
256625
catalog number
7489

No. 26 Van Nuys

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1947
maker
Feininger, Andreas
ID Number
1990.0160.086
catalog number
1990.0160.086
accession number
1990.0160

USDA librarian records selections being sent to China

date made
1946
referenced
United States Department of Agriculture
ID Number
2013.0327.1163
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.1163

Lamplighter, Frankfurt

Press print; man standing on ladder lighting street lampsCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
Press print; man standing on ladder lighting street lamps
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930s-1940s
ID Number
2013.0327.0576
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0576

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940s
ID Number
2013.0327.1075
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.1075

Map of Southeastern Europe

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1945
ID Number
2013.0327.0730
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0730

Woman with baby taking selfie

Press print of woman seated on the grass holding a baby in her lap; in her right hand she has a long string attached to the shutter release of a camera sitting on a stool in order to take a self-portrait; caption attached to verso describing how to make a self-portrait.
Description (Brief)
Press print of woman seated on the grass holding a baby in her lap; in her right hand she has a long string attached to the shutter release of a camera sitting on a stool in order to take a self-portrait; caption attached to verso describing how to make a self-portrait. Image distributed to newspapers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943-06
maker
Acme Photo
ID Number
2015.0074.0092
accession number
2015.0074
catalog number
2015.0074.0092

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