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 961 items.
Page 1 of 97
[Young man inspecting color prints in drying rack in darkroom : color photonegative, ca. 1955-60.]
- Summary
- No ink on negative. Man looking at photographic prints in the Scurlock Studios. "Kodak Safety Film" edge imprint. No Scurlock number
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1955
- 1960
- ca 1955-60
- Ca. 1955-60
- 20th century
- 1950-1960
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Local number
- AC0618.005.0000020.tif (AC Scan)
- Box 618.05.1
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Young man in darkroom with processing trays in darkroom : color photonegative.]
- Summary
- No ink on negative, no Scurlock number. Young man wearing rubber gloves, standing next to processing trays at Scurlock Studios. "Kodak Safety Film" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1955
- 1960
- 1955-60
- 20th century
- 1950-1960
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Local number
- AC0618.005.0000021.tif (AC Scan No.)
- Box 618.05.1
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Exterior of Capitol School of Photography : color transparency.]
- Summary
- No ink on negative. No edge imprint. No Scurlock number
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1948
- 1952
- 20th century
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Subject
- Capitol School of Photography
- Local number
- AC0618.005.0000045.tif (AC Scan No.)
- Box 618.05.2
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Unidentified photographic studio, but probably the Scurlock Studio : cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- With bust, lights, bench and backdrop. Pencil on negative: "3 -". "KODAK - SAFETY 456" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1960
- [n.d.]
- 20th century
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Local number
- Box 618.04.94
- AC0618.004.0000968.tif (scan number)
- No Scurlock number
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
French soldiers passing a shelled village near Verdun
- Description
- When World War II broke out in 1939, LIFE magazine sent Carl Mydans and his wife Shelley overseas to document the unfolding events as a photographer/reporter team. The two began by covering the siege in London. They then moved on to Finland where Mydans was first exposed to combat. After a short stay in Italy, they traveled to France where they witnessed its fall to Nazi Germany.
- Mydans' words describe the scene: "Each war begins where the last one left off." French soldiers in May 1940 could be mistaken for the poilus or infantrymen of 1914 as they straggle past a shelled village near Verdun after the German breakthrough at Sedan.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1940-05
- 1940
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.059
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.059
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
American fighter and bomber pilots at Clark Field, Philippines
- Description
- When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Carl and Shelley Mydans were already covering the effects of World War II in the Pacific. Early in 1941 they went to Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, and China, and later to Manila, in the Philippines.
- Clark Air Base, a U.S. Air Force base on Luzon Island, was overrun by Japanese forces in early 1942. On the first day of war in the Pacific, the Japanese managed to destroy the American planes on the field. Some pilots escaped to fly again; some fought and died as infantry soldiers on Bataan and Corregidor; and others died in Japanese prison camps. This group portrait of pilots was taken just a day after the Japanese had destroyed their grounded planes. In January 1945, after three months of fierce fighting, American forces reclaimed the air base.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1941-12
- 1941
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.063
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.063
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Young Japanese man strumming a guitar inside the Tule Lake Segregation Center
- Description
- After their capture in Manila by Japanese forces in January 1942 and 16 months in internment camps, Carl and Shelly Mydans finally touched American soil in late 1943. Mydans' first assignment for LIFE magazine after his repatriation was a story on Japanese internment camps on the U.S. West Coast.
- Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry living in the United States were removed from their homes and relocated to isolated inland areas in California and other western states. This man was one of 155 "pressure boys," men loyal to Japan who had been involved in various riots in November the previous year. Mydans reported that the boy was singing Home on the Range as he entered the barracks. "He sang it like an American. There was no Japanese accent. He looked at me the same way I guess I looked at a Japanese official when he came to check on me at Camp Santo Tomás in Manila. At the back of my mind was the thought, 'Come on, get it over and get out. Leave me alone.' This boy felt the same way. He was just waiting, killing time" (LIFE, March 20, 1944, p.31).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.065
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.065
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
American Third Division units enter a newly liberated village in the south of France
- Description
- A prisoner of war between 1942 and 1943, Mydans continued photographing the events of World War II once he was released. After the Battle of Rome, Mydans went on to Marseilles to report on the progress of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France. It began on August 15, 1944 and lasted till mid-September. The Third Infantry Division, seen here entering a village on a jeep, and two other divisions of the VI Corps were part of the assault troops that participated in the liberation of southern France.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944-08
- 1944
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.066
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.066
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Surrendering German soldiers during the liberation of Southern France, near St. Tropez
- Description
- After the Italian campaign of 1944, Mydans decided to cover the landing of Allied troops in Saint Tropez with a French division, the Third DIA under General Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert. The Allied invasion of southern France, code-name Operation Dragoon, originally envisioned a mixture of Free French and American troops taking over Toulon and later Marseille, with subsequent revisions encompassing Saint Tropez. It took the Allies about a month to complete their mission. Here, surrendering German soldiers taken by French forces during the assault are marched through a village.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.067
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.067
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Captured German troops after the Battle for Rome
- Description
- Once Mydans was freed from a Japanese internment camp, he went straight back to work. After writing a story for LIFE back in the United States, Mydans returned to the European front in time for an important Allied victory. Eight months after Italy had surrendered to Allied forces, Rome was liberated. Following months of battle in the area of Cassino, the U.S. Fifth Army made their way towards Rome. The capture of the city, although controversial, was significant since it was the first Axis capital to fall. There was little resistance from German forces once the Allies reached the outskirts of the city; German headquarters had ordered their troops to retreat. The men shown here were among the few Germans captured by the Allies. They are awaiting shipment to prison.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944-06
- 1944
- photographer
- Mydans, Carl
- ID Number
- 2005.0228.068
- accession number
- 2005.0228
- catalog number
- 2005.0228.068
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
