Meanwhile, About Those Abraham Lincoln Inauguration Photos
Posted on: January 18th, 2008 by Matt Raymond
It was an entirely happy coincidence this week that we announced both the Flickr pilot project and an amazing photographic discovery on exactly the same day.
A trio of images, previously thought to have been picturing different events, have been confirmed to be photographs from Abraham Linclon’s second inauguration as president on March 4, 1865. Here’s the parallel I like to draw:
A user of our Prints and Photographs Online Catalog raised questions about the images, which sent Library of Congress curator Carol Marie Johnson sleuthing. Careful comparisons to the only other two known images from that event and meticulous combing through records led her to this discovery.
My point is that if we can uncover those kinds of treasures, thanks in part to our discerning Web users, imagine what might happen after setting loose hoards of eager photo fans at Flickr.
I’ve heard reports that the story for a good portion of Wednesday was the most-clicked on CNN.com. It was written about by the L.A. Times and was also mentioned on NBC’s “Today Show,” among others.
Even David Letterman made a reference to it on last night’s “Late Show.” That definitely ranks closely in pop-culture significance to the moment when our staff burst into applause when the Library of Congress was first mentioned on-screen in “National Treasure: Book of Secrets”!
Tags: abrahamlincoln, abraham lincoln, photos, photographs, history, libraryofcongress, library of congress
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January 20th, 2008 at 2:11 am
So happy about your flickr site
flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/
Do you also have a YouTube presence?
January 20th, 2008 at 7:11 am
[...] potential is foreshadowed by the discovery of 3 previously misidentified images of Abraham Lincoln’s second commemoration by a user of their traditional archive! A user of our Prints and Photographs Online Catalog raised [...]
January 21st, 2008 at 10:39 pm
I can understand your enthusiasm. I support the motivations and benefits of Web 2.0, including flickr. I worry, though — once the comments to the photographs become ungoverned by an information professional (yes, I mean librarian) who knows what sort of information will be associated with what material. In other words, if the research if left to those who contribute to Wikipedia, we may get more comments (and not necessarily accurate) on Janet Jackson as opposed to Andrew Jackson. I hail the LOC’s contributions to flickr, but I fear that without someone fact checking the comments, our history could become perverted and distorted. What do you think? Is there a danger here to unleashing the archives to mass comment?
April 13th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
[...] jednak warto było zaryzykować? Jak informuje blog Biblioteki Kongresu, już pierwszego dnia funkcjonowania projektu The Commons udało się zidentyfikować nieopisane [...]
April 13th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
LA Martin,
Isn’t it worth the risk? Our ‘media’ is already saturated with perversion and distortion. The pendulem has begun to swing and this is the prof.
Respectfully.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Finding these previously misidentified photos must have been thrilling.
I’m sure there are other Lincoln photos out there for the finding.
Thanks for letting us know.
Geoff Elliott
http://abrahamlincolnblog.blogspot.com