Photography

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.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961
maker
Kertész, André
ID Number
PG.69.162.8
accession number
282922
catalog number
69.162.8
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
unknown
ID Number
2006.0142.07
accession number
2006.0142
catalog number
2006.0142.07
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.66.64.099B
accession number
264003
catalog number
66.64
From Pictorial Artistry: The Dramatization of the Beautiful in PhotographyChristmas! The Spell of Yuletide everywhere… enhanced a thousand-fold for me by the all-blanketing blizzard. Excitedly, the snowflakes whipped and clung to my face and camera like myriad tiny hands.
Description
From Pictorial Artistry: The Dramatization of the Beautiful in Photography
Christmas! The Spell of Yuletide everywhere… enhanced a thousand-fold for me by the all-blanketing blizzard. Excitedly, the snowflakes whipped and clung to my face and camera like myriad tiny hands. Now and then, the sounds of the crunching footsteps made me aware of strangers passing by furtively. The park was shrouded in the mystery of this luminous night. The high ascending buildings that frame the park were lost in the far-reaching darkness. But the bright glow to the south was unmistakable. There stands the Plaza. A tiny bell tinkled… a “Santa Claus” still at his post somewhere waiting for alms. The world about me, so aloof in the snowy stillness, held a serenity that filled me with gladness… an unknown something that for me is the spirit of Christmas… so glorious, so white, on this night of nights.
Composition:
We are led into the picture field over a winding black brook, resembling one of the many strange designs of the Chinese Dragon, culminating in a mysterious glow beyond the trees. The fantastic towers in the dim distance group themselves in pyramidal fashion and lend dignity to the drama.
Technical Problems:
The buildings were not visible, but their position was known through my daytime familiarity with the setting. The feeling of snow in the air was lost, due to time exposure and had to be reintroduced by printing a texture into the image during enlarging. The icy snow settled between metal parts of the camera and on the lens which made the camera useless after one exposure.
Data:
Camera: 4x6 inches
Lens: Zeiss Tessar 7 ¼ inches
Stop: f:11
Exposure: 3 ½ minutes
Plate: Illingworth Lightning
Exhibition Print: 12x17 inches, direct enlarging
Paper: Tuma Gas, blue toned"
by Adolf Fassbender, 1937
Location
Currently not on view
date made
before 1937
maker
Fassbender, Adolf
ID Number
PG.004116.01
accession number
146001
catalog number
4116.01
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Falk, Sam
ID Number
PG.69.99.030
catalog number
69.99.030
accession number
281224
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1907
ID Number
1988.3101.0008
nonaccession number
1988.3101
catalog number
1988.3101.0008
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970
maker
Harbutt, Charles
ID Number
PG.72.14.052
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1901-1907
ID Number
PG.72.104.1
catalog number
72.104.1
accession number
306577
This portable-style wooden bellows plate camera was popular with both professional and amateur photographers in the 1880s and well into the early twentieth century.
Description
This portable-style wooden bellows plate camera was popular with both professional and amateur photographers in the 1880s and well into the early twentieth century. Photographers attached plate holders with sensitized glass plates to the back of the camera, making fragile negatives. Wet-plate collodion photography popular from the 1850s to the late 1880s necessitated immediate developing and printing of these negatives. Landscape photographers and those on expeditions to the American West used small portable traveling darkrooms to complete quick developing and printing.
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.
date made
ca 1880s
maker
Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company
ID Number
PG.74.19A.25
catalog number
74.019A.25
accession number
314637
Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Exchange Place." Long, narrow view between two skyscrapers looking out over busy street below. Bands of light visible where it breaks through between the buildings on the right.
Description
Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Exchange Place." Long, narrow view between two skyscrapers looking out over busy street below. Bands of light visible where it breaks through between the buildings on the right. Light-colored building in top right juxtaposed with very dark roof of building on right edge. Verso: Stamp, "Photograph, Berenice Abbott, Maine 04406; " "26" in bottom left.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1930-1940
maker
Abbott, Berenice
ID Number
PG.69.216.11
accession number
288852
catalog number
69.216.11
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970
maker
Harbutt, Charles
ID Number
PG.72.14.016
George Eastman invented flexible roll film and in 1888 introduced the Kodak cameras shown to use this film. This camera is now known as the Original Kodak and it took 100 exposure rolls of film that gave circular images 2 5/8" in diameter.
Description
George Eastman invented flexible roll film and in 1888 introduced the Kodak cameras shown to use this film. This camera is now known as the Original Kodak and it took 100 exposure rolls of film that gave circular images 2 5/8" in diameter. In 1888 the original Kodak sold for $25 loaded with a roll of film and included a leather carrying case.
The Original Kodak was fitted with a rotating barrel shutter unique to this model. The shutter was set by pulling up a string on top of the camera and operated by pushing a button on the side of the camera. After taking a photograph a key on top of the camera was used to wind the film onto the next frame. There is no viewfinder on the camera; instead two V shaped lines on the top of the camera leather are intended to aid aiming the camera at the subject. The barrel shutter proved to be expensive to manufacture and unreliable in operation. The following year the shutter was replaced by a simpler sector shutter in the No 1 Kodak.
After 100 pictures had been taken on the film strip the camera could be returned to the Kodak factory for developing and printing at a cost of $10. The camera, loaded with a fresh roll of film was returned with the negatives and mounted prints. Kodak advertisements from 1888 also state that any amateur could ‘finish his own pictures’ and spare rolls of film were sold for $2.
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
1888
maker
Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company
ID Number
PG.006519
catalog number
6519
accession number
242983
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Falk, Sam
ID Number
PG.69.99.029
accession number
281224
catalog number
69.99.029
With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture.
Description
With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture. She recorded this unconventional time of Anti-War demonstrations in California, communes, Love-Ins, peace marches and concerts, as well as her family life as she became a wife and mother. The photographs were collected by William Yeingst and Shannon Perich in a cross-unit collecting collaboration. Together they selected over two hundred photographs relevant to photographic history, cultural history, domestic life and social history.
Law’s portraiture and concert photographs include Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Lovin Spoonful and Peter, Paul and Mary. She also took several of Janis Joplin and her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, including the photograph used to create the poster included in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum’s exhibition 1001 Days and Nights in American Art. Law and other members of the Hog Farm were involved in the logistics of setting up the well-known musical extravaganza, Woodstock. Her photographs include the teepee poles going into the hold of the plane, a few concert scenes and amenities like the kitchen and medical tent. Other photographs include peace rallies and concerts in Haight-Ashbury, Coretta Scott King speaking at an Anti-War protest and portraits of Allen Ginsburg and Timothy Leary. From her life in New Mexico the photographs include yoga sessions with Yogi Bhajan, bus races, parades and other public events. From life on the New Buffalo Commune, there are many pictures of her family and friends taken during meal preparation and eating, farming, building, playing, giving birth and caring for children.
Ms. Law did not realize how important her photographs were while she was taking them. It was not until after she divorced her husband, left the farm for Santa Fe and began a career as a photographer that she realized the depth of history she recorded. Today, she spends her time writing books, showing her photographs in museums all over the United States and making documentaries. In 1990, her video documentary, “Flashing on the Sixties,” won several awards.
A selection of photographs was featured in the exhibition A Visual Journey: Photographs by Lisa Law, 1964–1971, at the National Museum of American History October 1998-April 1999.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969-08-15
date printed
1998
maker
Law, Lisa
ID Number
1998.0139.155
catalog number
1998.0139.155
accession number
1998.0139
ID Number
2012.3033.4092
catalog number
2012.3033.4092
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1946
maker
Feininger, Andreas
ID Number
1990.0160.091
catalog number
1990.0160.091
accession number
1990.0160
During 1937 and 1938, Mydans led a nomadic life-- a situation shared with most of his subjects-- living in hotel rooms as his assignments took him to Georgia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York , Vermont, California, Texas, and elsewhere.In one of his New York stops, he took t
Description
During 1937 and 1938, Mydans led a nomadic life-- a situation shared with most of his subjects-- living in hotel rooms as his assignments took him to Georgia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York , Vermont, California, Texas, and elsewhere.
In one of his New York stops, he took this picture of a "chain gang." Like a chain gang of prisoners, the four officers coming out of the Stock Exchange are handcuffed to their briefcases. Each day their task is to safeguard the contents of the briefcases while transporting them to the bank for deposit.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
Spring 1937
1937
photographer
Mydans, Carl
ID Number
2005.0228.039
accession number
2005.0228
catalog number
2005.0228.039
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1965
maker
Plowden, David
ID Number
1986.0711.0709
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0709
With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture.
Description
With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture. She recorded this unconventional time of Anti-War demonstrations in California, communes, Love-Ins, peace marches and concerts, as well as her family life as she became a wife and mother. The photographs were collected by William Yeingst and Shannon Perich in a cross-unit collecting collaboration. Together they selected over two hundred photographs relevant to photographic history, cultural history, domestic life and social history.
Law’s portraiture and concert photographs include Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Lovin Spoonful and Peter, Paul and Mary. She also took several of Janis Joplin and her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, including the photograph used to create the poster included in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum’s exhibition 1001 Days and Nights in American Art. Law and other members of the Hog Farm were involved in the logistics of setting up the well-known musical extravaganza, Woodstock. Her photographs include the teepee poles going into the hold of the plane, a few concert scenes and amenities like the kitchen and medical tent. Other photographs include peace rallies and concerts in Haight-Ashbury, Coretta Scott King speaking at an Anti-War protest and portraits of Allen Ginsburg and Timothy Leary. From her life in New Mexico the photographs include yoga sessions with Yogi Bhajan, bus races, parades and other public events. From life on the New Buffalo Commune, there are many pictures of her family and friends taken during meal preparation and eating, farming, building, playing, giving birth and caring for children.
Ms. Law did not realize how important her photographs were while she was taking them. It was not until after she divorced her husband, left the farm for Santa Fe and began a career as a photographer that she realized the depth of history she recorded. Today, she spends her time writing books, showing her photographs in museums all over the United States and making documentaries. In 1990, her video documentary, “Flashing on the Sixties,” won several awards.
A selection of photographs was featured in the exhibition A Visual Journey: Photographs by Lisa Law, 1964–1971, at the National Museum of American History October 1998-April 1999.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969-08-16
date printed
1998
maker
Law, Lisa
ID Number
1998.0139.156
catalog number
1998.0139.156
accession number
1998.0139
From Pictorial Artistry: The Dramatization of the Beautiful in Photography"Imagination is the thing of which most beautiful and unusual pictures are created. Walk along this lake with me and gaze at what seems to be a sunken castle in the shimmering water.
Description
From Pictorial Artistry: The Dramatization of the Beautiful in Photography
"Imagination is the thing of which most beautiful and unusual pictures are created. Walk along this lake with me and gaze at what seems to be a sunken castle in the shimmering water. See how it follows us as we proceed, changing with every move to grotesque and weird shapes. Why, snakes seem to be running up and down the edges! There now, towards us comes a tree, upside down. We stop. So does the tree! It stretches its fluttering arms out as if to embrace the castle. There are more quivering leaves at the bottom of the lake. Everything seems to vibrate on the eddying water. The gentle breeze that stirs the water sounds like music, floating from the submerged castle with its towers of glory… a City Symphony.
Composition:
A steelyard arrangement, but pyramidal in effect. Notice the harmony and unison brought about by the stretching branches and leaves, unifying things that “belong” together”. The tree trunk, bent slightly backward and the heavy foreground made it possible to move the tower somewhat off center avoiding immovability and stagnation.
Technical Problems:
Depth of focus, due to large camera and moving objects, was difficult to achieve. Only by compromising and throwing the foreground (6 feet away) into darkness to overcome lack of focus, then waiting long for the wind to still its movement, and leaving the lends fairly wide open, was it possible to get an exposure short enough to arrest the swift creeping motion along the roof tops. The sky was empty and looked dreary so clouds had to be introduced to create the fairylike atmosphere. To convey a sense of mystery, texture was printed in.
Data:
Camera: 9x12cm Jewell A
Lens: Zeiss Tessar
Opening: f.8
Filter: Light
Film: Agfa Plenachrome
Exposure: 1/25, on tripod
Print: 14x17 direct, on Tuma Gas"
by Adolf Fassbender, 1937
Location
Currently not on view
date made
before 1937
maker
Fassbender, Adolf
ID Number
PG.004116.35
catalog number
4116.35
accession number
146001
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970
maker
Harbutt, Charles
ID Number
PG.72.14.053
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Falk, Sam
ID Number
PG.69.99.071
accession number
281224
catalog number
69.99.71
Carl Mydans' relationship with TIME Inc. began by capturing pictures similar to this one. During his lunch hour, he had photographed a man by the name of Eugene Daniell who was talking to a small crowd as he stood on a soapbox on Wall Street.
Description
Carl Mydans' relationship with TIME Inc. began by capturing pictures similar to this one. During his lunch hour, he had photographed a man by the name of Eugene Daniell who was talking to a small crowd as he stood on a soapbox on Wall Street. In this photograph, a woman appeals to the crowd during a noontime rally. A few years prior to this image, office workers had won legal protection for their right to assemble. Despite the crippling effects of the Great Depression on the common working man, the thirties saw dramatic growth in the labor movement.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1936
photographer
Mydans, Carl
ID Number
2005.0228.020
accession number
2005.0228
catalog number
2005.0228.020
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
maker
Harbutt, Charles
ID Number
PG.72.14.046

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