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

Building adobe house 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
1998.0139.085
catalog number
1998.0139.085
accession number
1998.0139

Arthur Miller, Playwright

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1964-01-22
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.66.64.048A
accession number
264003
catalog number
66.64

Home of Jook Savages, the Law Family and friends. Abiquiu, NM. 1968

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
1968
date printed
1998
maker
Law, Lisa
ID Number
1998.0139.173
catalog number
1998.0139.173
accession number
1998.0139

Stained Wall Paper

Silver gelatin, mounted. Detail of wallpaper with stain on it. Looks similar to watermarks on litmus paper or on wood. Stains on left and right side of the photograph, with largest stain on the right. Signed, ink (recto: bottom right).
Description (Brief)
Silver gelatin, mounted. Detail of wallpaper with stain on it. Looks similar to watermarks on litmus paper or on wood. Stains on left and right side of the photograph, with largest stain on the right. Signed, ink (recto: bottom right). Verso: Adams stamp, handwritten title with scratched out mistaken location.
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
ca 1961
print made
1968
maker
Adams, Ansel
ID Number
PG.69.117.24
catalog number
69.117.24
accession number
282104

Forrest

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1944-1961
maker
Ruohomaa, Kosti
ID Number
PG.007354
catalog number
7354
accession number
252971

Man and Mural

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1962
maker
Erwitt, Elliott
ID Number
PG.72.13.82
catalog number
72.13.82
accession number
2001.0310

Malcolm X, Black National Leader

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1963-03-27
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.66.64.022A
accession number
264003
catalog number
66.64

Jeanie Standing Up for America

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968
maker
Powers, Mark James
ID Number
2013.0222.33
catalog number
2013.0222.33
accession number
2013.0222

Trees on a hill

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966
maker
Snyder, Joel
ID Number
PG.68.14.11
catalog number
68.14.11

Martin Luther King, III, son of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1963-03-22
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.66.64.024A
accession number
264003
catalog number
66.64

Henry Geldzhaler

date made
1965
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.67.102.019
catalog number
67.102.19
accession number
270571

Pine Cone and Eucalyptus Leaves

Silver gelatin, mounted. Close up of pine cone surrounded by eucalyptus leaves. Detailed. Can see indentations and marks on pine cone and leaves. Signed, ink (recto: bottom right).
Description (Brief)
Silver gelatin, mounted. Close up of pine cone surrounded by eucalyptus leaves. Detailed. Can see indentations and marks on pine cone and leaves. Signed, ink (recto: bottom right). Verso: Adams stamp, title handwritten, ink.
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
1934
print made
1968
maker
Adams, Ansel
ID Number
PG.69.117.19
catalog number
69.117.19
accession number
282104

Day of Kennedy's Assassination - Commuters on the 6:25 train

By the fall of 1963, President Kennedy and his political advisers were preparing for the next presidential campaign.
Description
By the fall of 1963, President Kennedy and his political advisers were preparing for the next presidential campaign. Although he had not formally announced his candidacy, it was clear that Kennedy was going to run for office and he seemed confident about his chances for reelection. On November 22, riding in a motorcade procession through downtown Dallas, Kennedy was shot.
According to the New York Times obituary of Mydans, Carl was one of the last photographers to reach LIFE magazine's offices after Kennedy's assassination. Since he was not awarded a clear assignment, Mydans wandered over to Grand Central Station and, on a whim, boarded a train north, headed to Stamford, Connecticut. The emotional intensity of the moment captured in this picture helped make it one of his most memorable images from all his years with LIFE.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1963
photographer
Mydans, Carl
ID Number
2005.0228.158
accession number
2005.0228
catalog number
2005.0228.158

Dark interior stairway

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966
maker
Snyder, Joel
ID Number
PG.68.24.04
catalog number
68.24.4

Cheryl Crane, Daughter of Lana Turner

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1963-09-30
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.66.64.025A
accession number
264003
catalog number
66.64

Red Pennants

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
maker
Farber, Daniel
ID Number
PG.76.01.1
catalog number
76.1.1
accession number
319916

Under the Pier

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1962
maker
Farber, Daniel
ID Number
PG.007961
accession number
258905
catalog number
7961

"Chicago Landscape, #149, 1964

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1964
maker
Sinsabaugh, Art
ID Number
PG.69.171.01
accession number
282737

Geriatric Dairy Queen

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
maker
Powers, Mark James
ID Number
2013.0222.17
catalog number
2013.0222.17
accession number
2013.0222

Clothes billowing in wind

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1944-1961
maker
Ruohomaa, Kosti
ID Number
PG.007377
accession number
252971
catalog number
7377

Truman Capote, author, with Perry Smith

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1960
ID Number
PG.67.102.038N

Oak Tree in Snow

Silver gelatin, mounted. Tall oak tree and several trees behind covered in snow and snow on ground. Each branch outlined by snow. Signed, ink (recto: bottom center). Verso: Adams stamp, title handwritten, ink center.
Description (Brief)
Silver gelatin, mounted. Tall oak tree and several trees behind covered in snow and snow on ground. Each branch outlined by snow. Signed, ink (recto: bottom center). Verso: Adams stamp, title handwritten, ink center. "RSN 82532R27" handwritten, pencil, bottom.
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.
Location
Currently not on view
negative made
1940
print made
1968
maker
Adams, Ansel
ID Number
PG.69.117.15
catalog number
69.117.15
accession number
282104

Man in rowboat

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1944-1961
maker
Ruohomaa, Kosti
ID Number
PG.007352
catalog number
7352
accession number
252971

Grain Elevator, Apache, OK

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
maker
Plowden, David
ID Number
1986.0711.0692
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0692

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