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: United States

Camel 'Bactrian', galloping

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0546
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0546
maker number
1146

Khrushchev visits Hollywood

In 1959 Mydans photographed Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev on his visit to the United States. During his stay, Khrushchev visited the Twentieth Century Fox studios during the filming of the movie Can-Can. Khrushchev came on the set with his wife, bodyguards, politicians, U.S.
Description
In 1959 Mydans photographed Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev on his visit to the United States. During his stay, Khrushchev visited the Twentieth Century Fox studios during the filming of the movie Can-Can. Khrushchev came on the set with his wife, bodyguards, politicians, U.S. officials, and studio heads who ordered the dancers to perform an entire can-can number for the elite guests.
The film, starring Shirley MacLaine, received worldwide publicity because of Khrushchev's visit. The next day's newspapers carried an interesting quote from him. When asked what he thought of Can-Can, he replied, "The face of humanity is prettier than its backside."
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1959
photographer
Mydans, Carl
ID Number
2005.0228.154
accession number
2005.0228
catalog number
2005.0228.154

two women in dark dresses

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1907
ID Number
1986.3048.1269
nonaccession number
1986.3048
catalog number
1986.3048.1269

Raccoon, galloping

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0679
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0679
maker number
1197

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

Animal Locomotion: Series 1474, Plate 640

maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003829.05
catalog number
3829.05
accession number
65115

Animal Locomotion: Series 974, Plate 265

maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0940
catalog number
3856.0940
accession number
98473

Muscular atrophy of legs - a dull walking

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0422
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0422
maker number
671

Animal Locomotion: Series 944, Plate 418

maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.1046
catalog number
3856.1046
accession number
98473

Chalmette Cemetery

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 1800s
ID Number
2012.3033.0084
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.0084

UN Secretariat and General Assembly

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Falk, Sam
ID Number
PG.69.99.030
catalog number
69.99.030
accession number
281224

Woods and Spanish Moss

Glass plate negative made by Walter J. Hussey, circa 1900. Woods in Florida with Spanish moss on the trees.The collection in the Photographic History Collection consists of over two hundred glass plate negatives made by Walter J. Hussey (1865-1959).
Description
Glass plate negative made by Walter J. Hussey, circa 1900. Woods in Florida with Spanish moss on the trees.
The collection in the Photographic History Collection consists of over two hundred glass plate negatives made by Walter J. Hussey (1865-1959). These glass plate negatives consist of daily life in and around Mount Pleasant, Ohio, Mr. Hussey's friends and family, studio portraits, his trips to the Washington, D.C. area, and Florida.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
maker
Hussey, Walter J.
ID Number
2011.0090.39
accession number
2011.0090
catalog number
2011.0090.39

Hank Williams, Jr.

Henry Horenstein photographed Hank Williams Jr., the son of legendary singer Hank Williams, leaving his tour bus. Williams Jr. (b. 1949) spent his early career singing his father's songs in his own style.
Description
Henry Horenstein photographed Hank Williams Jr., the son of legendary singer Hank Williams, leaving his tour bus. Williams Jr. (b. 1949) spent his early career singing his father's songs in his own style. After a 1974 suicide attempt and a mountain climbing accident in 1975, he revamped his own image, modeling it after rowdy southern rockers. Later he was considered part of the Outlaw Country Movement.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1973
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.074
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.074

Omphalos

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
Oct 2009
date printed
Jan 2010
maker
Kunin, Claudia
ID Number
2010.0034.04
catalog number
2010.0034.04
accession number
2010.0034

Double Vision LA Freeways

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1972
maker
Powers, Mark James
ID Number
2013.0222.43
catalog number
2013.0222.43
accession number
2013.0222

Baseball batting

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0220
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0220
maker number
586

Animal Locomotion: Series 930, Plate 138

maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0861
catalog number
3856.0861
accession number
98473

Fort Stewart Activities

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1940s
maker
Signal Corps' Army Pictorial Service and Army Communications Service
ID Number
2013.0327.0223
catalog number
2013.0327.0223
accession number
2013.0327

Animal Locomotion: Series 1509, Plate 135

maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0858
catalog number
3856.0858
accession number
98473

Child walking

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0363
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0363
maker number
576

Walking and turning

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1885-09-21
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0722
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0722
maker number
1376

Fungus, Ipswich, Massachusetts, 1962

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

Attempt at hauling, dark gray horse 'Billy'

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1885-10-24
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0753
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0753
maker number
1526

Baseball batting

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0219
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0219
maker number
582

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