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.

Place: New York

Hudson Midtown Tunnel excavation

Midtown Hudston Tunnel - excavation for New York Plaza, gelatin silver printCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
Midtown Hudston Tunnel - excavation for New York Plaza, gelatin silver print
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1936
ID Number
2013.0327.0258
catalog number
2013.0327.0258
accession number
2013.0327

Apartments on East River Drive, NYC

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Plowden, David
ID Number
1986.0711.0718
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0718

Detail of a building

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970
maker
Harbutt, Charles
ID Number
PG.72.14.019

No. 34 Fertility Fetish Sculpture from Bambara, Africa

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1956
maker
Feininger, Andreas
ID Number
1990.0160.071
accession number
1990.0160
catalog number
1990.0160.071

Mr and Mrs Luca Ghettaldi, (City Hall Wedding)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.66.64.098A
accession number
264003
catalog number
66.64

Blossom Restaurant, 103 Bowery

Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Blossom Restaurant, 103 Bower." Photograph shows store windows of restaurant, with a small barber shop on the right of the photograph.
Description (Brief)
Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Blossom Restaurant, 103 Bower." Photograph shows store windows of restaurant, with a small barber shop on the right of the photograph. The restaurant has a menu handwritten on the window that includes entrees such as pig knuckles for 25 cents, and a 15 cent oxtail stew. A man stands in stairwell with hands in pockets, and a second man is behind the barber pole. The window above door has signs advertising foods available in the store to the left. Sign to right of stairwell advertises services offered by barber as well as prices: a ladies bob is 30 cents, while a shave is only 10 cents. Verso: Stamp, "Photograph, Berenice Abbott, Maine 04406;" "20" in bottom left..
Description
During the 1920s, Berenice Abbott was one of the premier portrait photographers of Paris, her only competitor was the equally well-known Dada Surrealist Man Ray who had served as her mentor and employer before she launched her own career. An American expatriate, Abbott enjoyed the company of some of the great twentieth century writers and artists, photographing individuals such as Jean Cocteau, Peggy Guggenheim and James Joyce. One of the critical elements of Abbott’s portraiture was a desire to neither enhance nor interfere with the sitter. She instead wished to allow the personality of her subject to dictate the form of the photograph, and would often sit with her clients for several hours before she even began to photograph them. This straight-forward approach to photography characterized Abbott’s work for the duration of her career.
Thematically and technically, Abbott’s work can be most closely linked to documentary photographer Eugène Atget (COLL.PHOTOS.000016), who photographed Paris during the early 1900s. Abbott bought a number of his prints the first time she saw them, and even asked him to set some aside that she planned to purchase when she had enough money. After his death in 1927, Abbott took it upon herself to publicize Atget’s work to garner the recognition it deserved. It was partly for this reason she returned to the United States in 1928, hoping to find an American publisher to produce an English-language survey of Atget’s work. Amazed upon her arrival to see the changes New York had undergone during her stay in Paris, and eager to photograph the emerging new metropolis, Abbott decided to pack up her lucrative Parisian portrait business and move back to New York.
The status and prestige she enjoyed in Paris, however, did not carry over to New York. Abbott did not fit in easily with her contemporaries. She was both a woman in a male-dominated field and a documentary photographer in the midst of an American photographic world firmly rooted in Pictorialism. Abbott recalls disliking the work of both photographer Alfred Stieglitz and his then protégé Paul Strand when she first visited their exhibitions in New York. Stieglitz, along with contemporaries such as Ansel Adams and Edward Steichen, tended to romanticize the American landscape and effectively dismissed Abbott’s straight photography as she saw it. Not only was Atget’s work rejected by the Pictorialists, but a series of critical comments she made towards Stieglitz and Pictorialism cost Abbott her professional career as a photographer. Afterwards, she was unable to secure space at galleries, have her work shown at museums or continue the working relationships she had forged with a number of magazine publications.
In 1935, the Federal Art Project outfitted Abbott with equipment and a staff to complete her project to photograph New York City. The benefit of a personal staff and the freedom to determine her own subject matter was unique among federally funded artists working at that time. The resulting series of photographs, which she titled Changing New York, represent some of Abbott’s best-known work. Her photographs of New York remain one of the most important twentieth century pictorial records of New York City. Abbott went on to produce a series of photographs for varied topics, including scientific textbooks and American suburbs. When the equipment was insufficient to meet her photographic needs, as in the case of her series of science photographs, she invented the tools she needed to achieve the desired effect. In the course of doing so, Abbott patented a number of useful photographic aids throughout her career including an 8x10 patent camera (patent #2869556) and a photographer’s jacket. Abbott also spent twenty years teaching photography classes at the New School for Social Research alongside such greats as composer Aaron Copland and writer W.E.B. DuBois.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Abbott’s career was the printing of Eugène Atget’s photographs, one of the few instances in which one well-known photographer printed a large number of negatives made by another well-known photographer. The struggle to get Atget’s photographs the recognition they deserved was similar to Abbott’s efforts to chart her own path by bringing documentary photography to the fore in a Pictorialist dominated America. Though she experienced varying levels of rejection and trials in both efforts, her perseverance placed her in the position she now holds as one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.
The Bernice Abbott collection consists of sixteen silver prints. The photographs represent a range of work Abbott produced during her lifetime, including her early portraiture work in Paris, her Changing New York series, Physics and Route 1, U.S.A. series.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1935-10-24
maker
Abbott, Berenice
ID Number
PG.69.216.05
accession number
288852
catalog number
69.216.05

Cherry St.

Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Cherry St." Street with three buildings, lamppost bottom right, man seated on steps of far left building.
Description (Brief)
Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Cherry St." Street with three buildings, lamppost bottom right, man seated on steps of far left building. Two women in light-colored clothing seated on step of center building, third woman wearing dark colors seated on folding chair; two young girls standing on top step in front of same building, both wearing light-colored clothing. Debris in road. Sign on building reads, "basement to let, Hallock 400 Grand at NY." Verso: Stamped two times with "Photograph, Berenice Abbott, Maine 04406," both on top of older stamp that reads, "Photograph by Berenice Abbott, Commerce St, New York 14, NY." Verso also includes pricing chart that was written in pencil and then erased, reading: "11x14 $60; 14x17 $65; 16x20 $70; [illegible size] $100; 24x30 $175; [illegible size] $175; 40x60 [illegible price]. Recto: signed by Abbott.
Description
During the 1920s, Berenice Abbott was one of the premier portrait photographers of Paris, her only competitor was the equally well-known Dada Surrealist Man Ray who had served as her mentor and employer before she launched her own career. An American expatriate, Abbott enjoyed the company of some of the great twentieth century writers and artists, photographing individuals such as Jean Cocteau, Peggy Guggenheim and James Joyce. One of the critical elements of Abbott’s portraiture was a desire to neither enhance nor interfere with the sitter. She instead wished to allow the personality of her subject to dictate the form of the photograph, and would often sit with her clients for several hours before she even began to photograph them. This straight-forward approach to photography characterized Abbott’s work for the duration of her career.
Thematically and technically, Abbott’s work can be most closely linked to documentary photographer Eugène Atget (COLL.PHOTOS.000016), who photographed Paris during the early 1900s. Abbott bought a number of his prints the first time she saw them, and even asked him to set some aside that she planned to purchase when she had enough money. After his death in 1927, Abbott took it upon herself to publicize Atget’s work to garner the recognition it deserved. It was partly for this reason she returned to the United States in 1928, hoping to find an American publisher to produce an English-language survey of Atget’s work. Amazed upon her arrival to see the changes New York had undergone during her stay in Paris, and eager to photograph the emerging new metropolis, Abbott decided to pack up her lucrative Parisian portrait business and move back to New York.
The status and prestige she enjoyed in Paris, however, did not carry over to New York. Abbott did not fit in easily with her contemporaries. She was both a woman in a male-dominated field and a documentary photographer in the midst of an American photographic world firmly rooted in Pictorialism. Abbott recalls disliking the work of both photographer Alfred Stieglitz and his then protégé Paul Strand when she first visited their exhibitions in New York. Stieglitz, along with contemporaries such as Ansel Adams and Edward Steichen, tended to romanticize the American landscape and effectively dismissed Abbott’s straight photography as she saw it. Not only was Atget’s work rejected by the Pictorialists, but a series of critical comments she made towards Stieglitz and Pictorialism cost Abbott her professional career as a photographer. Afterwards, she was unable to secure space at galleries, have her work shown at museums or continue the working relationships she had forged with a number of magazine publications.
In 1935, the Federal Art Project outfitted Abbott with equipment and a staff to complete her project to photograph New York City. The benefit of a personal staff and the freedom to determine her own subject matter was unique among federally funded artists working at that time. The resulting series of photographs, which she titled Changing New York, represent some of Abbott’s best-known work. Her photographs of New York remain one of the most important twentieth century pictorial records of New York City. Abbott went on to produce a series of photographs for varied topics, including scientific textbooks and American suburbs. When the equipment was insufficient to meet her photographic needs, as in the case of her series of science photographs, she invented the tools she needed to achieve the desired effect. In the course of doing so, Abbott patented a number of useful photographic aids throughout her career including an 8x10 patent camera (patent #2869556) and a photographer’s jacket. Abbott also spent twenty years teaching photography classes at the New School for Social Research alongside such greats as composer Aaron Copland and writer W.E.B. DuBois.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Abbott’s career was the printing of Eugène Atget’s photographs, one of the few instances in which one well-known photographer printed a large number of negatives made by another well-known photographer. The struggle to get Atget’s photographs the recognition they deserved was similar to Abbott’s efforts to chart her own path by bringing documentary photography to the fore in a Pictorialist dominated America. Though she experienced varying levels of rejection and trials in both efforts, her perseverance placed her in the position she now holds as one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.
The Bernice Abbott collection consists of sixteen silver prints. The photographs represent a range of work Abbott produced during her lifetime, including her early portraiture work in Paris, her Changing New York series, Physics and Route 1, U.S.A. series.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1931
maker
Abbott, Berenice
ID Number
PG.69.216.09
accession number
288852
catalog number
69.216.09

Christopher St. Shop

Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Christopher St. Store." Very dark storefront through whose window the interior of the store is not at all visible except for a few bottles, a metal appliance, and a large, white-faced analog clock hanging just inside the window.
Description
Unmounted silver print by Berenice Abbott, "Christopher St. Store." Very dark storefront through whose window the interior of the store is not at all visible except for a few bottles, a metal appliance, and a large, white-faced analog clock hanging just inside the window. To the right of the main store is a laundry service. In the foreground is a wheeled cart. Entrance to descending stairway at the left with iron rail, sidewalk is cracked. The stark, straight on photograph void of people is somewhat reminiscent of Eugène Atget's photographs of storefront windows. Verso: Stamp, "Photograph, Berenice Abbott, Maine 04406," red debris left middle side; Recto: signed by the artist.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1930-1940
maker
Abbott, Berenice
ID Number
PG.69.216.12
accession number
288852
catalog number
69.216.12

Arrested Fugitive

Black and white photograph taken by J. Ross Baughman of a man kneeling on a floral couch cushion with his hands behind him in hand cuffs. Another man stands in front of him wearing a long black coat looking at a piece of paper held in his hands.
Description (Brief)
Black and white photograph taken by J. Ross Baughman of a man kneeling on a floral couch cushion with his hands behind him in hand cuffs. Another man stands in front of him wearing a long black coat looking at a piece of paper held in his hands. Another man stands behind the kneeling man with a gun in a hip hostler writing on a small notepad. The number "5" is visible on the wall behind the men. Writing on the back says "From the portfolio Certain Positions of Influence. 'Arrested Fugitive' Bronx, NY, 1984. New York State undercover parole officers read the Miranda Rights to a drug dealer after a midnight raid. [On assignment for LIFE magazine]". J. Ross Baughman's signature on the back of the photograph.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1984
maker
Baughman, J. Ross
ID Number
2010.0231.19
catalog number
2010.0231.19
accession number
2010.0231

No. 39 Fetish of the Babembe, Africa (sculpture)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1955
maker
Feininger, Andreas
ID Number
1990.0160.076
accession number
1990.0160
catalog number
1990.0160.076

No. 29 Cities Service Building, 70 Pines Street

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941
maker
Feininger, Andreas
ID Number
1990.0160.017
accession number
1990.0160
catalog number
1990.0160.017

Kodak Disc 4000

The Kodak Disc 4000 camera was introduced in the 1980s, incorporating a new version of the popular disc format film cartridges used in 110 cameras. A round disc was prepared with fifteen 8x10mm negatives for drop-in camera loading.
Description
The Kodak Disc 4000 camera was introduced in the 1980s, incorporating a new version of the popular disc format film cartridges used in 110 cameras. A round disc was prepared with fifteen 8x10mm negatives for drop-in camera loading. Unfortunately, since the negatives were so small, most printed images were soft focus and unsatisfactory in quality. Eastman Kodak continued production of the camera until 1998, when their new Advanced Photo System process and Advantix cameras had been introduced to the market.
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 1980s
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
1997.0321.10
accession number
1997.0321
catalog number
1997.0321.10

No. 40 Female head (sculpture) from Baule, Africa

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1955
maker
Feininger, Andreas
ID Number
1990.0160.077
accession number
1990.0160
catalog number
1990.0160.077

Hillotype of Westkill Village, New York

The Photographic History Collection at the National Museum of American History holds an extraordinary series of early color photographs: sixty-two color daguerreotype plates made by Rev. Levi L.
Description (Brief)
The Photographic History Collection at the National Museum of American History holds an extraordinary series of early color photographs: sixty-two color daguerreotype plates made by Rev. Levi L. Hill in the early 1850s in Westkill, Greene County, New York, including this image of buildings in the town. This unique collection is what remains as evidence of the "Hillotypes" produced and experiments conducted by Hill to produce daguerreotype plates with natural colors. No greater controversy has ever divided the history of photography. Approximately 60 related articles appeared in journals between 1851 and 1856, as the photography community awaited the details on how to produce a Hillotype.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1850s-1860s
maker
Hill, Levi
ID Number
PG.003999.01
accession number
125759
catalog number
3999.01

Woodstock Festival, Bethel, NY August 17, 1969

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
1969-08-17
date printed
1998
maker
Law, Lisa
ID Number
1998.0139.154
catalog number
1998.0139.154
accession number
1998.0139

Thomas Jefferson, Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961
maker
Kertész, André
ID Number
PG.69.162.7
accession number
282922
catalog number
69.162.7

Figure 8

From Pictorial Artistry: The Dramatization of the Beautiful in Photography"Winter in Central Park, New York City. Early morning, only a few people realized that there would be ice and snow in the Park.
Description
From Pictorial Artistry: The Dramatization of the Beautiful in Photography
"Winter in Central Park, New York City. Early morning, only a few people realized that there would be ice and snow in the Park. The haze was lifting and I found this young lady busy making her perpetual Figure 8. Ice skating is real fun at the foot of the city skyscrapers. It is real fun, too, taking pictures on such an exhilarating morning, except for the comfort of my finger tips and toes.
In the distance is Columbus Circle if one wishes to penetrate the thin haze which lingers like winter’s icy breath over the town.
Composition:
The open space between the figures and the tree in the foreground provides an excellent entrance to the wintry scene, which is enhanced by the interesting group of modern skyscrapers in the background. The tree on the lower right is most important in the balance of the composition. Also the slight darkening of the sky on the upper right, conveying the blue coming through, helps to add to the necessary weight at this point.
Technical Problems:
In the foreground there was a fence which had to be removed via retouching. Otherwise one would have to jump over the fence to reach the picture. The tree on the right was too light and had to be darkened via reduction on the negative. A texture was introduced in the printing to convey the feeling of the delicate haze, noticed when making the picture. The vicinity around the skating figure had to be lightened to distinguish the lady from her surroundings. The ice looked too dark, especially in the distance, and had to be brightened.
Data:
Camera: Jewell A 9x12cm
Lens: Zeiss Tessar
Stop: f.11
Film: Agfa Super Plenachrome
Filter: Light Yellow
Exposure: 1/10, on tripod
Print: 14x17 Tuma Gas, blue toned"
by Adolf Fassbender, 1937
Location
Currently not on view
date made
before 1937
maker
Fassbender, Adolf
ID Number
PG.004116.05
catalog number
4116.05
accession number
146001

Broadway & St. Nicholas Hotel

ID Number
2012.3033.4096
catalog number
2012.3033.4096

Florence Johns

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920s
maker
Muray, Nickolas
ID Number
2013.0327.1541
catalog number
2013.0327.1541
accession number
2013.0327

Bronx Park, NY, Hike, Mar. 21, '15

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1915-3-21
ID Number
1986.3048.0673
nonaccession number
1986.3048
catalog number
1986.3048.0673

Flash Bantam 4.5 Camera

date made
after 1947
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2006.0206.01
catalog number
2006.0206.01
accession number
2006.0206

Barn Door, Sangerfield, NY

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1964
maker
Plowden, David
ID Number
1986.0711.0700
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0700

Main St. Penn Yan NY

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1907
postmark date
1908/1/13
ID Number
1986.3048.1580
nonaccession number
1986.3048
catalog number
1986.3048.1580

No. 73 Pattern Shop, Bethlehem Steel Co.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1944
maker
Feininger, Andreas
ID Number
1990.0160.062
accession number
1990.0160
catalog number
1990.0160.062

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