In many cases where a substantial amount of pictorial material arrives in the Manuscript Division with an individual's personal
papers, the images are transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. As with material from an organization's records, such images frequently lack identification, but may be revealing not only of the individual whose activities and proclivities
they reflect, but also of the individual's social milieu. For instance:
Images found with the Clara Barton Papers (600 items, 1863-1946) include carte-de-visite portraits of families in her social circle. Although not all of the
individuals are identified, the images are valuable for the record they provide of styles of studio portraiture depicting
members of the upper middle class in the 1860s. Barton's papers also include images documenting relief activities in the United
States, Cuba, and Europe carried out by the Red Cross, the organization with which Barton was so long associated.
Images from the Nannie Helen Burroughs Papers (550 items, 1910-58) document the students and activities of the school for African American girls that she founded
in Washington, D.C., in 1909, including a photo album compiled by one of her students, Alice Smith. The visual material also
documents Burroughs's involvement in Baptist philanthropic activities and her
missionary activities in Liberia and in Malawi.
Images transferred from the Margaret Sanger Papers (63 items, ca. 1900-1965; LOT 13246) document her acquaintances and concerns and picture scattered scenes from her life.
The collection includes informal portraits of Sanger and also:
her family, and associates
activities of various birth control advocacy organizations
photographic views of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb explosion
Images from the Blackwell Family Papers (165 items, ca. 1850-1920) depict members of the family as well as women and men prominent in the National American Women
Suffrage Association. The materials include lantern slides used in a lecture about the history of women's suffrage. Maud Wood
Park used a portion of this lecture in 1939 to commemorate Carrie Chapman Catt's eightieth birthday. (Other Blackwell family
images remain in the Manuscript Division.)
Visual materials from the papers of Clare Booth Luce (3,800 items, ca. 1890-1981) include many photo albums from her ambassadorship in Italy, portraits of Luce and her friends,
and a few posters relating to productions of her play The Women.
Searching the Collection
Lucy Stone, 1818-1893 (photo button). Between 1900 and 1920. Prints and Photographs Division. LC-USZC4-6780. bibliographic record
There are three principal pointers to groups of images from personal collections:
References in Manuscript Division finding aids point users of an individual's papers to associated visual materials transferred
to the Prints and Photographs Division, although occasionally some visual items also remain with the written records.
The Divisional Card Catalog contains records created before 1984 for groups of images from personal collections. For example,
brief descriptions of Clara Barton and Nannie Helen Burroughs LOTs are found here.
Prints and Photographs Online Catalog contains records created since 1984 for groups of images from personal collections and,
in some cases, for single items. The latter are generally accompanied by digitized images. For instance, the online catalog
includes the following:
Margaret Sanger Papers—a description of the entire collection and of single items for which copy negatives or transparencies
exist
Blackwell Family Papers—a description of the entire collection and of single items for which copy negatives or transparencies
exist. An unpublished finding aid listing names of people depicted in portraits is available in the Prints and Photographs
Reading Room (filed under call number)
Clare Booth Luce Papers—a description of the entire collection and of single items for which copy negatives or transparencies
exist; an unpublished finding aid providing a more detailed overview of the collection and listing folder categories within
each LOT is available in the Prints and Photographs Division Reading Room
The division has not had an opportunity to organize and describe all materials transferred to it from other divisions. Individuals
must apply for access to materials that are still unprocessed because extra staff time is required to prepare materials for
use.
