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.

Resource Type: Photographs

Nigeria 1957

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Heyman, Ken
ID Number
1982.0545.214
accession number
1982.0545.214
catalog number
82.545.214

Woman singing on stage

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970-1980s
maker
Baughman, J. Ross
ID Number
2010.0231.01.029
catalog number
2010.0231.01.029
accession number
2010.0231

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

lonely tree

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
1906
maker
Eickemeyer, Jr., Rudolf
ID Number
PG.004135.B011.22
catalog number
4135.B11.22
accession number
128483

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

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

Three men work in a very bare room

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1910-15
maker
Lumiere Company
ID Number
2003.0016.15
accession number
2003.0016
catalog number
2003.0016.15

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

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

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

Rev. Cyril d'Arcy

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1958
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.66.64.010A
accession number
264003
catalog number
66.64.010A

Man carrying wood

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Field, J. H.
ID Number
PG.006503F
accession number
241725
catalog number
6503F

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

Factory line with woman working

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1910-15
maker
Lumiere Company
ID Number
2003.0016.11
accession number
2003.0016
catalog number
2003.0016.11

An Outing with the Do-It-Yourself Built Family Airplane Near Paris

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Aigner, Lucien
ID Number
1992.0101.17
catalog number
1992.0101.17
accession number
1992.0101

Robert Flaherty

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.007000E
catalog number
7000-E
accession number
246871

Duke and Duchess of Windsor

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1957
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.006983B
catalog number
6983B
accession number
246871

Pitching a Song

At Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, musicians could hang out, perform and hope for a chance to be discovered.Currently not on view
Description
At Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, musicians could hang out, perform and hope for a chance to be discovered.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1974
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.111
catalog number
2003.0169.111
accession number
2003.0169

CRP staff monitoring campaign

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
July 4, 1972
maker
Maroon, Fred J.
ID Number
1999.0147.025
catalog number
1999.0147.025
accession number
1999.0147

Jumping over man's back (leapfrog)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1885-07-22
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0134
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0134
maker number
972

Burns' Cottage Ayr

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860s-1880s
maker
Wilson, G. W.
ID Number
2013.0305.004
catalog number
2013.0305.004
accession number
2013.0305

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