Photography - Overview
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.
"Photography - Overview" showing 2326 items.
Page 1 of 233
Autochrome Portrait
- Description
- William H. Towles, active from 1890 into the 1930s, is said to have made Washington, D.C.'s first autochrome. Autochromes are among the first commercially successful forms of color photography. The color dyes in the photographs are held by potato starch.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1908
- 1908-01
- maker
- Towles, William H.
- ID Number
- PG*003900
- accession number
- 107614
- catalog number
- 3900
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Muybridge Patent Model
- Description
- A pioneer in the development of the photography of motion, 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge worked to photograph humans or animals in motion. Muybridge's patent for the Method and Apparatus for Photographing Objects in Motion (No. 212, 865, Patented March 4, 1879) documented Muybridge's sliding-shutter mechanism and background panel used to photograph a horse in rapid motion "in order to determine the posture, position, and relation of their limbs in different proportions of their step or stride." The patent model is built in two different scales, showing the camera slides at one side and the track/grid background concept (with heavy thread trip cord) on the other. The horse would travel between them.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1879
- maker
- Muybridge, Eadweard
- ID Number
- PG*0754
- catalog number
- 754
- accession number
- 48866
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Platt Babbitt Daguerreotype of Niagara Falls
- Description
- This whole-plate hand-colored daguerreotype by Platt D. Babbitt shows tourists at Horseshoe Falls, Niagara Falls, New York, circa 1854-1870. Babbitt established himself as a professional photographer on the American side of Niagara Falls in 1853. He built a pavilion for his camera to take photographs of visiting groups, without the tourists' knowing. Babbitt finished his daguerreotypes, unique positive photographs made on silver-coated copper plates, and offered them for sale before groups left. He ran this lucrative business for almost two decades.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1850
- maker
- Babbitt, Platt D.
- ID Number
- PG*71.21.09
- catalog number
- 71.21.09
- accession number
- 299134
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Daguerreotype of Unitarian Congregational Church, New York City
- Description
- Daguerreotype of Unitarian Congregational Church, New York City. On the Washington Square campus of the New York University, Samuel F.B. Morse and Dr. John W. Draper operated together one of the first American photographic studios for a short time, from 1839 to the early 1840s. Collaborating on this quarter-plate daguerreotype, the partners achieved a clear photograph of the Unitarian Congregational Church of the Messiah, on the east side of Broadway across Waverly Place, New York City, from their rooftop studio in the fall of 1839 or winter of 1840. Morse quickly refocused his professional career on the perfection of a working telegraph, while Dr. Draper continued to work in scientific photography with his sons for the remainder of his academic career at the University.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1840
- photographer
- Draper, John William
- ID Number
- PG*72.72.B155
- catalog number
- 72.72.B155
- accession number
- 304826
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kodak Baby Brownie Special Camera
- Description
- Popular from the 1939 World’s Fair into the 1950s, the Kodak Baby Brownie Special was a small black camera made of bakelite, with white shutter button and winding knob and featuring a braided strap. With a rigid view finder and focus-free lens, it produced eight 3¼ x 3 inch photographs from 127 film.
- From its invention in 1839, the camera has evolved to fit many needs, from aerial to underwater photography and everything in between. Cameras allow both amateur and professional photographers to capture the world around us. The Smithsonian’s historic camera collection includes rare and unique examples as well as popular models.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1950s
- maker
- Eastman Kodak Company
- ID Number
- 1979.0007.04
- catalog number
- 1979.0007.04
- accession number
- 1979.0007
- catalog number
- 79.007.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Vest Pocket Autographic Kodak Camera
- Description
- Kodak Vest Pocket cameras were first introduced in 1914 for producing postcards. On the Autographic models, a stylus stored at the back of the camera allowed for marking negatives with information, dates, or titles. These cameras remained popular for decades, including many models marketed to soldiers and families for capturing memories during the World War I and II eras.
- From its invention in 1839, the camera has evolved to fit many needs, from aerial to underwater photography and everything in between. Cameras allow both amateur and professional photographers to capture the world around us. The Smithsonian’s historic camera collection includes rare and unique examples of equipment, and popular models, related to the history of the science, technology, and art of photography.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1910s
- maker
- Eastman Kodak Company
- ID Number
- 1983.0066.01
- catalog number
- 1983.0066.01
- accession number
- 1983.0066
- catalog number
- 83.066
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kodak Disc 4000
- Description
- The Kodak Disc 4000 camera was introduced in the 1980s, incorporating a new version of the popular disc format film cartridges used in 110 cameras. A round disc was prepared with fifteen 8x10mm negatives for drop-in camera loading. Unfortunately, since the negatives were so small, most printed images were soft focus and unsatisfactory in quality. Eastman Kodak continued production of the camera until 1998, when their new Advanced Photo System process and Advantix cameras had been introduced to the market.
- From its invention in 1839, the camera has evolved to fit many needs, from aerial to underwater photography and everything in between. Cameras allow both amateur and professional photographers to capture the world around us. The Smithsonian’s historic camera collection includes rare and unique examples of equipment, and popular models, related to the history of the science, technology, and art of photography.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1980s
- maker
- Eastman Kodak Company
- ID Number
- 1997.0321.10
- accession number
- 1997.0321
- catalog number
- 1997.0321.10
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Family Photo Album
- Description
- Family photograph albums hold the history of generations, preserving the memories of birthdays, holidays, travels, and all general aspects of life. African American Mary Taylor used her 35mm Bell and Howell camera to document her family's life in the black community of Los Angeles, California, during the mid-20th century. She turned a discarded wallpaper sample book into a treasured family heirloom.
- Taylor's family photographs including 19th-century tintypes, turn-of-the-century hand-colored portraits, and albums from the 1950s to the 1970s provide insight into the African American experience in the United States over the past century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- Taylor, Mary A.
- ID Number
- 2002.0103.02
- accession number
- 2002.0103
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mountain of the Holy Cross
- Description
- After the Civil War the United States turned its full attention to exploration of the West. A number of geological survey teams, organized by the Department of the Interior, spent the 1870s traveling throughout the region, charting the landscape and employing photographers and engravers to capture images of the people and the environment. One such photographer was William Henry Jackson, a member of the United States Geological and Geographic Survey of the Territories from 1870 to 1878. The photographs that Jackson brought back to the East helped to introduce much of the population to the existence and phenomena of the western landscape, and helped to shape public perception as well as governmental policies surrounding the region.
- One of Jackson's most enduring and iconic images is his photograph of the 14,000-foot Mountain of the Holy Cross, located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The mountain was already a legend when Jackson photographed it, because of the snow-filled cross that appeared on its eastern face when weather conditions permitted. His struggle to actually locate and get the photograph—including an arduous trek up a mountainside carrying hundreds of pounds of equipment without the benefit of pack animals, and a night spent exposed to the high altitude air in order to be in the right place when the sun —only added to the status of the mountain after the image was published.
- In subsequent years the Holy Cross photograph continued to influence American culture. Jackson won a number of awards for the image; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used the picture as inspiration for his poem The Cross of Snow; and many Christians saw the presence of the cross in such a landscape as an invitation to participate in Manifest Destiny and further explore and populate the unknown territories of the West.
- This image was donated to the Smithsonian in 1967.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1870s
- date made
- 1873
- user
- Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
- maker
- Jackson, William Henry
- ID Number
- 2004.0286.16
- accession number
- 2004.0286
- catalog number
- 2004.0286.16
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kodak Advantix T700 Camera
- Description
- The Kodak Advantix T700 camera is an example of the company’s Advanced Photo System compact automatic camera introduced in the 1990s and intended primarily for amateur photographers. Film for the camera was factory-loaded in a cassette for easy drop-in loading. Users could select from three film sizes before pressing the shutter to produce images in 4 x 6”, 4 x 7”, or 4 x 11” panoramic format. Once processed for printing, the negative film was returned to the cassette and an index print of all images made for the owner’s future reference in making copy prints.
- From its invention in 1839, the camera has evolved to fit many needs, from aerial to underwater photography and everything in between. Cameras allow both amateur and professional photographers to capture the world around us. The Smithsonian’s historic camera collection includes rare and unique examples of equipment, and popular models, related to the history of the science, technology, and art of photography.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1990s
- maker
- Eastman Kodak Company
- ID Number
- 2005.0143.014
- accession number
- 2005.0143
- catalog number
- 2005.0143.014
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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