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
2012.3033.2703
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.2703

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.2716
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.2716

Isabel Hicks Eickemeyer standing in small boat in lily pond

Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium.
Description
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium. In his lectures, he pointed out that this approach to photography was important because in the hands of a photographer who “lives and understands the infinitely varied moods of nature, photography can be made to express and interpret them.” In correspondence with Dr. Olmstead at the Smithsonian, as the presentation of his gifts and bequest to the museum was being arranged, Eickemeyer wrote: “The collection illustrates the use of every important process and will, I believe, be of real educational value.”
The first of the Eickemeyer photographic collection came to the National Museum’s Department of Arts and Industries (the “Castle”), Division of Graphic Arts in 1922 at the close of a large exhibition of Eickemeyer’s work at the Anderson Gallery in New York. It was a gift from the photographer of five framed prints from the New York show that he considered representative of his work.
In 1929, Eickemeyer gave the Smithsonian 83 framed prints (including copies of the prints that he had previously given the museum), 15 portfolios, his medals and awards, and several miscellaneous photographic paraphernalia. In 1930, he made a will bequeathing most of his remaining prints, negatives, photographic equipment and other objects relating to his 30-year career as a photographer to the Smithsonian Institution.
Upon Eickemeyer’s death in 1932, an accession consisting primarily of photographic equipment from his studio came to the Smithsonian. Included in the bequest were 2 cameras, several lenses, scales, timers, printing frames, plate holders, dry mounters and a lecture case with slide projector and hand-colored lantern slides. Also included were 43 albums, journals and portfolios and assorted negatives and contact prints, many marked “discards.” There are 58 albums, notebooks and portfolios in the collection. Eickemeyer requested in his will that his gifts and bequests be called The Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Collection.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890s
maker
Eickemeyer, Jr., Rudolf
ID Number
PG.004135.B115.23
catalog number
4135.B115.23
accession number
106456

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.3943
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.3943

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.3268
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.3268

(untitled)

(untitled) by Jessie Tarbox Beals, gelatin silver print.Currently not on view
Description
(untitled) by Jessie Tarbox Beals, gelatin silver print.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Beals, Jessie Tarbox
ID Number
2013.0327.0146
catalog number
2013.0327.0146
accession number
2013.0327

"Doc" Seylars Rest House Tsucarora Summit, Elevation 2240 - Lincoln Highway

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1907
ID Number
1986.3048.1670
nonaccession number
1986.3048
catalog number
1986.3048.1670

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.2883
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.2883

Sugar Levee, New Orleans

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1893
maker
Strohmeyer & Wyman
ID Number
2012.3033.0079
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.0079

Album with painted flowers

Album; 4 pages with watercolor flower paintings around frames clasp with padlock. 28 cartes-de-visite. Front cover broken, spine missing. Collector: Albert Boni.Currently not on view
Description
Album; 4 pages with watercolor flower paintings around frames clasp with padlock. 28 cartes-de-visite. Front cover broken, spine missing. Collector: Albert Boni.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1875-1876
ID Number
PG.71.26.048
catalog number
71.26.48
accession number
299134

Rooster

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1938
maker
Abbott, Berenice
ID Number
PG.006126
catalog number
6126
accession number
234066

From My Window: Summer

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1951
maker
Anderson, Paul L.
ID Number
PG.76.56.15
catalog number
76.56.15
accession number
320680

field of corn and pumpkins

Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium.
Description
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium. In his lectures, he pointed out that this approach to photography was important because in the hands of a photographer who “lives and understands the infinitely varied moods of nature, photography can be made to express and interpret them.” In correspondence with Dr. Olmstead at the Smithsonian, as the presentation of his gifts and bequest to the museum was being arranged, Eickemeyer wrote: “The collection illustrates the use of every important process and will, I believe, be of real educational value.”
The first of the Eickemeyer photographic collection came to the National Museum’s Department of Arts and Industries (the “Castle”), Division of Graphic Arts in 1922 at the close of a large exhibition of Eickemeyer’s work at the Anderson Gallery in New York. It was a gift from the photographer of five framed prints from the New York show that he considered representative of his work.
In 1929, Eickemeyer gave the Smithsonian 83 framed prints (including copies of the prints that he had previously given the museum), 15 portfolios, his medals and awards, and several miscellaneous photographic paraphernalia. In 1930, he made a will bequeathing most of his remaining prints, negatives, photographic equipment and other objects relating to his 30-year career as a photographer to the Smithsonian Institution.
Upon Eickemeyer’s death in 1932, an accession consisting primarily of photographic equipment from his studio came to the Smithsonian. Included in the bequest were 2 cameras, several lenses, scales, timers, printing frames, plate holders, dry mounters and a lecture case with slide projector and hand-colored lantern slides. Also included were 43 albums, journals and portfolios and assorted negatives and contact prints, many marked “discards.” There are 58 albums, notebooks and portfolios in the collection. Eickemeyer requested in his will that his gifts and bequests be called The Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Collection.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1900-1910
maker
Eickemeyer, Jr., Rudolf
ID Number
PG.004135.B020.136
catalog number
4135.B20.136
accession number
128483

Animal Locomotion: Series 539, Plate 276

maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0946
catalog number
3856.0946
accession number
98473

"Animal Locomotion. Plate 56."; Female, Walking turning and stooping to lift train

date made
1887
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.75.17.965.010
catalog number
75.17.965.10

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.1020
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.1020
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.1020

Barracks

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1949-07
ID Number
2013.0327.1173
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.1173

Walking; saddle, white horse, 'Elberon'

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0442
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0442
maker number
1371

Oak Leaf #7

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Farber, Daniel
ID Number
PG.69.184.4
accession number
285031
catalog number
69.184.4

The Reservoir in Boston

Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium.
Description
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium. In his lectures, he pointed out that this approach to photography was important because in the hands of a photographer who “lives and understands the infinitely varied moods of nature, photography can be made to express and interpret them.” In correspondence with Dr. Olmstead at the Smithsonian, as the presentation of his gifts and bequest to the museum was being arranged, Eickemeyer wrote: “The collection illustrates the use of every important process and will, I believe, be of real educational value.”
The first of the Eickemeyer photographic collection came to the National Museum’s Department of Arts and Industries (the “Castle”), Division of Graphic Arts in 1922 at the close of a large exhibition of Eickemeyer’s work at the Anderson Gallery in New York. It was a gift from the photographer of five framed prints from the New York show that he considered representative of his work.
In 1929, Eickemeyer gave the Smithsonian 83 framed prints (including copies of the prints that he had previously given the museum), 15 portfolios, his medals and awards, and several miscellaneous photographic paraphernalia. In 1930, he made a will bequeathing most of his remaining prints, negatives, photographic equipment and other objects relating to his 30-year career as a photographer to the Smithsonian Institution.
Upon Eickemeyer’s death in 1932, an accession consisting primarily of photographic equipment from his studio came to the Smithsonian. Included in the bequest were 2 cameras, several lenses, scales, timers, printing frames, plate holders, dry mounters and a lecture case with slide projector and hand-colored lantern slides. Also included were 43 albums, journals and portfolios and assorted negatives and contact prints, many marked “discards.” There are 58 albums, notebooks and portfolios in the collection. Eickemeyer requested in his will that his gifts and bequests be called The Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Collection.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1909
maker
Eickemeyer, Jr., Rudolf
ID Number
PG.004135.B010.08
catalog number
4135.B10.8
accession number
128483

stereograph

date made
mid-late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.2484
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.2484

Boy riding a donkey, 'Zoo'

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0499
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0499
maker number
1207

Lieutenant Burnham of Lowell

Lieutenant Burnham of Lowell; Profile of young man in Civil War uniform; Cond: Page torn lower right; faded; yellowing.
Description
Lieutenant Burnham of Lowell; Profile of young man in Civil War uniform; Cond: Page torn lower right; faded; yellowing.
ID Number
1995.0231.211.13
accession number
1995.0231
catalog number
1995.0231.211.13

White Birches on the Bryans Farms

Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium.
Description
Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. (1862–1932) used a wide variety of printing processes, printing out some negatives in more than one medium. In his lectures, he pointed out that this approach to photography was important because in the hands of a photographer who “lives and understands the infinitely varied moods of nature, photography can be made to express and interpret them.” In correspondence with Dr. Olmstead at the Smithsonian, as the presentation of his gifts and bequest to the museum was being arranged, Eickemeyer wrote: “The collection illustrates the use of every important process and will, I believe, be of real educational value.”
The first of the Eickemeyer photographic collection came to the National Museum’s Department of Arts and Industries (the “Castle”), Division of Graphic Arts in 1922 at the close of a large exhibition of Eickemeyer’s work at the Anderson Gallery in New York. It was a gift from the photographer of five framed prints from the New York show that he considered representative of his work.
In 1929, Eickemeyer gave the Smithsonian 83 framed prints (including copies of the prints that he had previously given the museum), 15 portfolios, his medals and awards, and several miscellaneous photographic paraphernalia. In 1930, he made a will bequeathing most of his remaining prints, negatives, photographic equipment and other objects relating to his 30-year career as a photographer to the Smithsonian Institution.
Upon Eickemeyer’s death in 1932, an accession consisting primarily of photographic equipment from his studio came to the Smithsonian. Included in the bequest were 2 cameras, several lenses, scales, timers, printing frames, plate holders, dry mounters and a lecture case with slide projector and hand-colored lantern slides. Also included were 43 albums, journals and portfolios and assorted negatives and contact prints, many marked “discards.” There are 58 albums, notebooks and portfolios in the collection. Eickemeyer requested in his will that his gifts and bequests be called The Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Collection.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1905
maker
Eickemeyer, Jr., Rudolf
ID Number
PG.004135.B012.21
catalog number
4135.B12.21
accession number
128483

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