Panoramic photographs (4,200 photos, 1851-1991; bulk 1880-1930) typically have a length that is at least twice as long as the panorama's width, making them ideal for depicting wide expanses of landscape and large groups.

Postcards and magazines reproduced panoramas as advertisements for real estate and for the promotion of the tourist industry, but they were also popular as portrait souvenirs for people attending conventions and other events.

The collection reflects the growing popularity of beauty contests in the 1920s, documents some women's colleges, and suggests women's relative visibility or invisibility in various types of religious and political organizations. Cityscapes and views of city life give some sense of women's presence and interactions or lack thereof in public places during the period, while rural landscapes give one a feel for the settings in which many women, particularly before 1920, spent their days.

For further information about the Panoramic Photos, see the collection profile: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/187_pans.html

Annual “Bathing Girl Parade,” Balboa Beach, Cal. M.F. Weaver, copyright holder. 1920 June 20. Prints and Photographs Division. LCUSZC4-8150. full caption | bibliographic record

Searching the Collection

Catalog records for all panoramas that measure more than twenty-eight inches long can be found in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog where the collection has its own listing. Digitized images accompany the records. The same materials can be searched in American Memory (see Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991).

Go to the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)