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.

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.1188
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.1188

The Stones of the Stennes, Orkney

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860s-1880s
maker
Wilson, G. W.
ID Number
2013.0305.028
catalog number
2013.0305.028
accession number
2013.0305

Liza Minnelli at a party

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
depicted (sitter)
Minnelli, Liza
ID Number
2013.0327.1262
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.1262

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.1335
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.1335

portrait of two men in front of capitol building

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1907
ID Number
1986.3048.1294
catalog number
1986.3048.1294
nonaccession number
1986.3048

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.3491
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.3491

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.1542
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.1542

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.3173
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.3173

Animal Locomotion: Series 866, Plate 402

maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.1033
catalog number
3856.1033
accession number
98473

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.2425
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.2425

Forest preserve for Sherman

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.67.88.00252
catalog number
67.88.00252
accession number
270586

group of women and children sitting around long table

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1907
ID Number
1986.3048.1345
nonaccession number
1986.3048
catalog number
1986.3048.1345

Alejandro Jodorowsky, director of EL TOPO, stopped by Taos to visit Dennis Hopper

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
date printed
1998
maker
Law, Lisa
ID Number
1998.0139.196
catalog number
1998.0139.196
accession number
1998.0139

Waterlilies, Hudson Valley, NY

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2000
maker
Weingarten, Robert I.
ID Number
2017.0338.0010
accession number
2017.0338
catalog number
2017.0338.0010

Woman trying on a wig

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970-1980s
maker
Baughman, J. Ross
ID Number
2010.0231.01.056
catalog number
2010.0231.01.056
accession number
2010.0231

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.2583
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.2583

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.1046
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.1046

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.3898
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.3898

Animal Locomotion. Plate 236.

date made
1887
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.002637
catalog number
2637
accession number
65115

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.2612
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.2612

Croquet ball and peg, Bay Saint Louis Mississippi

Garden with croquet ball and peg. Handwritten text on recto, "Regards to all, Gertrude" and "Bay Staint Louis, Mississippi"handwritten text on verso: This is a very shady spot at "Oakland" our home where we spend most of the summer afternoons.
Description (Brief)
Garden with croquet ball and peg. Handwritten text on recto, "Regards to all, Gertrude" and "Bay Staint Louis, Mississippi"
handwritten text on verso: This is a very shady spot at "Oakland" our home where we spend most of the summer afternoons. Hope that we will have the pleasure of your company next [?]. It is really cooler here than in Indianapolis in the summer time even if we are almost in a tropical region.
Sent to: Miss Loretto Gramling, N. Delaware near 22nd St, Indianapolis, Ind.
Postmark: Bay Saint Louis, Nov 19, 1910, 4pm
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1907
postmark
1910-11-19
ID Number
1986.3048.0642
nonaccession number
1986.3048
catalog number
1986.3048.0642

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis (b. 1935) one of the first rockabilly artists, was known for his hit songs "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" (1957) and "Great Balls of Fire" (1961).
Description
Jerry Lee Lewis (b. 1935) one of the first rockabilly artists, was known for his hit songs "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" (1957) and "Great Balls of Fire" (1961). Lewis's flamboyant style and sound grew out of his Louisiana upbringing, a mix of traditional country and gospel, boogie woogie on the radio, and music he heard at his uncle's honky-tonk.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1975
print
2003
Associated Name
Lewis, Jerry Lee
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.101
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.101

Animal Locomotion: Series 1105, Plate 755

maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003829.17
catalog number
3829.17
accession number
65115

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.2726
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.2726

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.