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

Men boxing, one knocking other down

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0266
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0266
maker number
1034

Wrestling - lock

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0274
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0274
maker number
1516

Marie-Louise Bousquet

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1958
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.66.64.079A
accession number
264003
catalog number
66.64

Dog galloping; white racing hound, Maggie

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0521
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0521
maker number
570

Hillotype, print of two women "Le Follet"

The Photographic History Collection at the National Museum of American History holds an extraordinary series of early color photographs: sixty-two color daguerreotype plates made by Rev. Levi L. Hill in the early 1850s in Westkill, Greene County, New York.
Description (Brief)
The Photographic History Collection at the National Museum of American History holds an extraordinary series of early color photographs: sixty-two color daguerreotype plates made by Rev. Levi L. Hill in the early 1850s in Westkill, Greene County, New York. This is the world's largest collection of Heliochromy, a rare early color photographic process based on silver chloride.
Hill’s color process was extremely complex, consisting of coating a daguerreotype plate with multiple layers of a compound of different metals that reacted to the different colors in the spectrum. The achievement of inventing a color photographic process in 1850 was even more remarkable considering that Hill was not trained as a scientist and lived in a very remote area of New York State.
Yet Hill was undisputably an important figure in the early history of American photography, an entrepreneur and an enthusiastic innovator. He wrote the first, and one of the best, manuals on daguerreotypy, "A Treatise on Daguerreotype" in 1850; and in 1856 he wrote the first manual on color photography, "Treatise on Heliochromy", which includes a description of his experiments and an overview of all the means of chemically producing pictures in natural colors with light.
Among important works by Hill are many daguerreotype photographs of European color prints, and art reproductions such as this Hillotype copying a French print of two women entitled "Le Follet". X-ray analysis of this plate shows true natural colors photographed; no pigments or dyes were added to the plate’s color areas after production.
date made
ca 1850s-1860s
maker
Hill, Levi
ID Number
PG.003999.45
catalog number
3999.45
accession number
125759

The Cobwebs of Memory

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1952
maker
Laughlin, Clarence John
ID Number
PG.006003K
catalog number
6003K
accession number
216876

Smoking

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1885-07-25
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0642
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0642
maker number
998

Dion and Entourage

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.007019B
catalog number
7019-B
accession number
246871

Jewel Box Billboard

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1985
maker
Lange, Vidie
ID Number
1988.0086.05
accession number
1988.0086
catalog number
1988.0086.05

Baseball batting

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1885-06-11
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0589
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0589
maker number
581

Congressmen sent to the White House

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
August 7, 1974
maker
Maroon, Fred J.
ID Number
1999.0147.110
accession number
1999.0147
catalog number
1999.0147.110

large ship moored in the harbor

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.B010.20
catalog number
4135.B10.20
accession number
128483

man leaning against stone pillar in a garden

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th century
maker
Rowland, Henry A.
ID Number
2021.0073.0009
accession number
2021.0073
catalog number
2021.0073.0009

City view with rooftops and steeple

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Peale, Titian Ramsay
ID Number
PG.66.25.18
accession number
263090
catalog number
66.25.18

Atomic bomb explosion

Black and white photograph of an Atomic bomb explosion by Harlold Edgerton. Using his Rapatronic Camera, Edgerton positioned himself over seven miles from the bomb release site and was able to photograph the initial stages of the bomb at one ten-millionth of a second.
Description
Black and white photograph of an Atomic bomb explosion by Harlold Edgerton. Using his Rapatronic Camera, Edgerton positioned himself over seven miles from the bomb release site and was able to photograph the initial stages of the bomb at one ten-millionth of a second.
date made
1940s
maker
Edgerton, H.
ID Number
PG.7034A
catalog number
7034A
maker number
7034F-N-92-16872
accession number
246413

Child

Albumen cartes-de-visite: Photograph of unidentified child, sitting in chair. Printed on back: Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries, Broadway and 10th st., New York----627 Pennsylvania Ave.
Description (Brief)
Albumen cartes-de-visite: Photograph of unidentified child, sitting in chair. Printed on back: Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries, Broadway and 10th st., New York----627 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, D.C.
Description
The Mathew Brady Collection is comprised of approximately 366 items dating from 1851 to 1921 in various formats including cartes-de-visite, cabinet photographs, imperial prints, silver gelatin prints, ambrotypes, albumen prints, stereoscopic photographs, wet collodion glass negatives, albums, models, newspaper clippings and paper. The materials are arranged according to format, and within format by maker. The wet collodion glass negatives are also arranged according to size. The majority of the items consist of military and civilian portraits taken by Mathew Brady himself or by one of the photographers from Brady's studio. Subjects for the collection include the American Civil War, U.S. Presidents, U.S. Heads of State, U.S. military personnel, notable personalities and general portraiture.
Highlights of the collection include portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses S. Grant, General Robert E. Lee, General George Armstrong Custer, Southern Confederacy President Jefferson Davis, President Andrew Johnson, General William T. Sherman, Samuel F. B. Morse, Mathew Brady, Henry Ward Beecher and Edgar Allan Poe. Also of note is a double-sided ambrotype taken by Mathew Brady.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Brady, Mathew B.
ID Number
1985.0736.56.07
catalog number
85.736.56.7
accession number
1985.0736

A Utrecht Pastoral

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1892
maker
Annan, James Craig
ID Number
PG.003456
accession number
67327
catalog number
3456

Movement of arm

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1885-06-24
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0622
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0622
maker number
713

Dirt Road flanked by barren trees

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966
maker
Snyder, Joel
ID Number
PG.68.14.08
catalog number
68.14.8

The Unborn

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941
maker
Laughlin, Clarence John
ID Number
PG.006301
catalog number
6301
accession number
237938

Marcel Achard

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1958
maker
Avedon, Richard
ID Number
PG.006994
catalog number
6994
accession number
246871

Epilepsy, walking

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1886
maker
Muybridge, Eadweard
ID Number
PG.003856.0418
accession number
98473
catalog number
3856.0418
maker number
834

The Wet Road

From Pictorial Artistry: The Dramatization of the Beautiful in Photography"It was seven o’clock on a rainy August evening at the Austrian-Tyrolian border. Looking back through the rear window of the car I saw this magnificent view. “Picture”, I shouted to my friend at the wheel.
Description
From Pictorial Artistry: The Dramatization of the Beautiful in Photography
"It was seven o’clock on a rainy August evening at the Austrian-Tyrolian border. Looking back through the rear window of the car I saw this magnificent view. “Picture”, I shouted to my friend at the wheel. “Impossible”! was his reply. “how could you take it in this rain and darkness”? I finally persuaded him to stop and I rushed back through the drizzling rain, quickly adjusting the camera. For I had seen something he could not as he kept his eyes on the road ahead. The setting sun had broken through an opening of the clouds, sending its last glorious rays down to the peaceful earth. It was a marvelous sight lasting only a minute. The wet road, catching and reflecting the light, seemed like a river disappearing around the hillside in the distance. The burst of sunlight overhead provided a dramatic climax for our ecstatic appreciation.
Composition:
Radiated. An array of dynamic lines all pointing in the direction of the leading motive, the sky, bringing the entire setting to a forceful and dramatic unity. The lower key rendering of church and house was necessary to avoid clashing with the intended center of interest.
Technical Problems:
Photographing against the light at such hours results in extreme contrast, a blocked up sky, and black silhouette-like shadows in the landscape. This, of course, is not what the eye sees. So, to produce a true to nature print, over-exposure and extensive reduction work in sky as well as additional balancing with groundglass was necessary. Seeing, remembering, imagining, then knowing the limitations of the material, and finally, the full application of technical media, are all essential to recreate a scene like the “Wet Road” on photographic paper.
Data:
Camera: Makina 2 ¼ x 3 ¼
Lens: Anticomar
Stop: f.6.3
Filter: Not needed
Exposure: 1/10 in hand
Film: Agfa Super Plenachrome
Print: 14x17 Tuma Gas"
by Adolf Fassbender, 1937
Location
Currently not on view
date made
before 1937
maker
Fassbender, Adolf
ID Number
PG.004116.06
catalog number
4116.06
accession number
146001

Beekeepers and Beehives

Glass plate negative made by Walter J. Hussey, 1885-1910.Beekeeper and beehives, Mt. Pleasant, Ohio.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, 1885-1910.Beekeeper and beehives, Mt. Pleasant, Ohio.
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
1885-1910
maker
Hussey, Walter J.
ID Number
2010.0080.77
accession number
2010.0080
catalog number
2010.0080.77

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