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: 1960s

Acid strobe dancing, "The Freek Out", Los Angeles, CA, 1965

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
1965
date printed
1997
maker
Law, Lisa
ID Number
1998.0139.028
catalog number
1998.0139.028
accession number
1998.0139

Plastic rooster on triangle of grass

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1960s
photographer
Uzzle, Burk
ID Number
PG.72.12.063
accession number
2003.0044
catalog number
72.12.63

Hull with Cleats

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1963-03
maker
Farber, Daniel
ID Number
PG.007960
accession number
258905
catalog number
7960

Building first adobe structure on land at New Buffalo Commune. Arroyo Hondo, NM. 1967

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
1967
date printed
1998
maker
Law, Lisa
ID Number
1998.0139.077
catalog number
1998.0139.077
accession number
1998.0139

Fungus, Ipswich, Massachusetts, 1962

Date made
1962
maker
Caponigro, Paul
ID Number
69.142.1
catalog number
69.142.1
accession number
298964

Carl Mydans in Vietnam

In 1968, Carl Mydans, then in his sixties, continued traveling the globe and documenting history as it developed.
Description
In 1968, Carl Mydans, then in his sixties, continued traveling the globe and documenting history as it developed. That year, it meant going to Vietnam and covering yet another war.
Sometimes people have asked me why I devoted so much of my life to covering these terrible scenes, these disasters, these wars. And there is an important reason. When I began as a photojournalist I was interested in the history that was developing around me and war is one of those stories.
I want to make it clear it is not because I liked war. They were awful periods. I have often been in places where it was so terrible, where I was so frightened, where I could criticize myself for being there by saying what are you doing, why are you here? The answer has always been that what I am doing is important, and that's why I am here. I am making a record of historic times.
Carl Mydans
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1968
photographer
Mydans, Carl
ID Number
2005.0228.163
accession number
2005.0228
catalog number
2005.0228.163

Violet

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
maker
Farber, Daniel
ID Number
PG.71.116.02
catalog number
71.116.02

Night sky

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1944-1961
maker
Ruohomaa, Kosti
ID Number
PG.007366
catalog number
7366
accession number
252971

Dirt Road flanked by barren trees

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966
maker
Snyder, Joel
ID Number
PG.68.14.08
catalog number
68.14.8

Toy Train

This toy train was used in 1963 and 1964 as the subject for several of the earliest publically seen holograms.
Description (Brief)
This toy train was used in 1963 and 1964 as the subject for several of the earliest publically seen holograms. In late 1963, Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks at the University of Michigan’s Willow Run Laboratories demonstrated a method of making high-resolution, three-dimensional images using laser beams. Their success came after years of research by many scientists, so while “Toy Train” was not the first hologram, the quality of the image stunned everyone. In 1970 Leith and Upatnieks donated about a dozen of their early holograms and the toy train to the Smithsonian.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1963
ID Number
EM.330400
catalog number
330400
accession number
288880

Three Men on a Boat

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
maker
Farber, Daniel
ID Number
PG.71.116.14
catalog number
71.116.14

Dark interior stairway

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966
maker
Snyder, Joel
ID Number
PG.68.24.01
catalog number
68.24.1

Lake and Barren Trees

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1967-01-31
maker
Snyder, Joel
ID Number
PG.68.14.06
catalog number
68.14.6

Good Humor Man

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
maker
Powers, Mark James
ID Number
2013.0222.18
catalog number
2013.0222.18
accession number
2013.0222

Killer Joe, Dance Teacher

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1962-01-03
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.66.64.006A
accession number
264003
catalog number
66.64.006A

Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine

Silver gelatin, mounted. View of sun-lit, snow capped mountains with smaller shadowy mountains in front. Small hills and grass cover ground with two horses in foreground. Signed, ink (recto: bottom right). Verso: Adams stamp, title handwritten, ink.
Description (Brief)
Silver gelatin, mounted. View of sun-lit, snow capped mountains with smaller shadowy mountains in front. Small hills and grass cover ground with two horses in foreground. Signed, ink (recto: bottom right). Verso: Adams stamp, title handwritten, ink. "RSN 82532R32" handwritten, pencil.
Description
The "natural chiaroscuro" of this scene in the Sierra Nevadas, foothills shaded in clouds and background mountains brightly lit, had Adams lingering outdoors in zero-degree weather waiting for the perfect composition to reveal itself. According to his book "Examples," Adams had the history and ecology of this region in mind when he took "Winter Sunrise." The endangered Mono Lake, which appears in the foreground, had once nurtured a lush and thriving valley, but by 1944, "practically all the water of the area flows to the homes and swimming pools of the City of Angels, and an American tragedy is here for all who care to see," according to Adams ("Examples," p.163). The photographer was equally upset by the letters "LP" which local Lone Pine High School students had painted on the left hill. Adams meticulously spotted out the graffiti in the darkroom before making his first prints, but the letters are still just visible in this print of the negative.
Ansel Adams (1902-1984) is one of the most well-known twentieth century photographers. His contributions to the field of photography include his innovation and teaching of the Zone System. The quality of his photographs set the standard by which many straight photographs are judged.
The collection in the Photographic History Collection consists of twenty-five photographs, all printed in or about 1968. All are gelatin silver, mounted, labeled and signed in ink by the photographer. The photographs include some of his most well-known images, but also portraits and objects. The selection of images was made in collaboration between the collecting curator and Adams.
negative made
1944
print made
ca 1968
maker
Adams, Ansel
ID Number
PG.69.117.09
accession number
282326
catalog number
69.117.9

Wasp's Eye View

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1954-1962
ID Number
PG.006413
accession number
241888
catalog number
6413

Leica M3 camera with 50mm f/2 lens

The Summicron lens was introduced in 1953.
Description
The Summicron lens was introduced in 1953. The lens incorporates rare earth elements in its seven element design and was considered the standard lens until superseded by the 50mm f1.4 Summilux.
Camera; Leica M-3, Serial No.: #1010400, with a Summicron lens-50mm f2; Serial No.: 1762377, and cap. Cap has dried residue on it. Camera is black and silver. “Leica D.R.P. Ernst Leitz GMBH, Wetzlar, Germany” is on top of camera.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1960
maker
Ernst Leitz
Leica
ID Number
2011.0268.10
accession number
2011.0268
catalog number
2011.0268.10
serial number
1010400

Outdoor scene of beach

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1960s
photographer
Uzzle, Burk
ID Number
PG.72.12.017
accession number
2003.0044
catalog number
72.12.17

White Washed Boards

Silver gelatin, mounted. Vertical view of boards with chipped white wash on them. Looks similar to a woven rug of light and dark fabrics. Substantial white wash missing in middle section. Signed, ink (recto: bottom right).
Description (Brief)
Silver gelatin, mounted. Vertical view of boards with chipped white wash on them. Looks similar to a woven rug of light and dark fabrics. Substantial white wash missing in middle section. Signed, ink (recto: bottom right). Verso: Adams stamp, handwritten title.
Description
Ansel Adams (1902-1984) is one of the most well-known twentieth century photographers. His contributions to the field of photography include his innovation and teaching of the Zone System. The quality of his photographs set the standard by which many straight photographs are judged.
The collection in the Photographic History Collection consists of twenty-five photographs, all printed in or about 1968. All are gelatin silver, mounted, labeled and signed in ink by the photographer. The photographs include some of his most well-known images, but also portraits and objects. The selection of images was made in collaboration between the collecting curator and Adams.
negative made
1962
print made
1968
maker
Adams, Ansel
ID Number
PG.69.117.25
catalog number
69.117.25
accession number
282104

Tom and Lisa Law trip tipi. Monterey Pop Festival, CA. 1967.

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
1967
date printed
1998
maker
Law, Lisa
ID Number
1998.0139.050
catalog number
1998.0139.050
accession number
1998.0139

Barren trees

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966
maker
Snyder, Joel
ID Number
PG.68.14.14
catalog number
68.14.14

Grain Elevator

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968
maker
Plowden, David
ID Number
1986.0711.0714
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0714

Grafitti covered wall

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1960s
photographer
Uzzle, Burk
ID Number
PG.72.12.077
accession number
2003.0044
catalog number
72.12.77

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