Related Collections at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (P&P)
101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC 20540-4730

• LOT 13436: 7 gelatin silver prints made in 1954
  Interior views of the Brady-Handy photographic studio at 494 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. The photographs show the storage conditions of the negatives before the collection was purchased by the Library.

Over the years, many negatives from the Brady-Handy Collection have been printed for the Prints and Photographs (P&P) Division's files in the Reading Room. Duplicate and copy negatives have not been scanned, but photographs from some of these negatives may be filed in P&P's reading room files, such as the Biographical File.

Photographs by Levin C. Handy are included in many LOTs and Filing Series in (P&P). Some of the more significant groups are described below:

Washington, D.C. Photographs

• LOT 8894: Vintage prints of the Supreme Court Building and Southern Railroad tracks near D.C. Modern gelatin silver prints from original glass plate negatives of the Library of Congress, the old Senate Chambers in the Capitol, and F Street, NW.

Library of Congress Construction Photographs
Between 1880 and 1896 Levin C. Handy was hired by the Library to document the construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building. He produced more than 900 glass plate negatives showing every phase of the construction process. The photographs and negatives may be accessed through the following three LOTS:

• LOT 12042 62 cyanotype and albumen panoramic photographs of the construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building.
• LOT 12335 albums (containing 717 cyanotype proofs) chronologically arranged to show the construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building.
• LOT 12365 2 microfilm reels of the 975 glass plate negatives documenting the construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building

Library of Congress

• LOT 4760: Interior and exterior views of the Thomas Jefferson Building. 33 mounted photographs showing various reading rooms, book stacks, and statuary produced shortly after the building was constructed.

E. and H.T. Anthony acquired Brady's Civil War negatives as payment for his debt to that photographic supply company. These negatives, distinguished by the prefix LC-B8, were later acquired by the Library in 1943 and are known as the Civil War Photographs Collection. The Civil War photographs are available via the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.

Douglas, Howard Grey and Levin C. Handy. The Library of Congress. Washington: Press of B. S. Adams, 1900.
Call number: Z733.U58 L6 Copy 2 (P&P Case X)

Souvenir viewbook containing 38 halftone reproductions from photographs by Mr. Howard Grey Douglas and Mr. Levin C. Handy. Plates include interior and exterior views of the Thomas Jefferson Building with a particular emphasis on the mosaics, paintings, and sculpture adorning the building. Brief text accompanies the plates.

Newspaper Clippings

Newspaper clippings arranged in an album primarily concerned with a court case in 1909 involving Civil War negatives made by the Brady Studio. One article provides genealogical information about the Handy family.
Call number: LOT 7467

Library of Congress, Manuscript Division
101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington DC 20540-4680

9 letters written to Handy regarding requests for photographs or services from his photography business. Two of the letters, written in September and October of 1895, from Mathew Brady request Handy's help with a lecture Brady is preparing.
Call number: Miscellaneous Manuscripts collection--Levin C. Handy

Library of Congress, Rare Book Division
101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington DC 20540-4740

The Library of Congress, Architecture and Mural Decorations; Pictures from Photographs. Washington: Foster & Reynolds, 1900.
Leather bound publication with gold leaf decorations. 35 half-tone illustrations from photographs by Howard Grey Douglas and Levin C. Handy. Plates include interior and exterior views of the Thomas Jefferson Building with a particular emphasis on the mosaics, paintings, and sculpture adorning the building. Brief text describing the building's murals and sculpture.
Call number: Z733.U58 L4

Related Collections Outside the Library of Congress

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New-York Historical Society, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections
2 West 77th Street, New York, NY 10024
(212) 873-3400

The collection includes approximately 600 large "Imperial" portraits (approximately 22 x 17 inches) and 5,300 cartes de visite from the Brady Studio.

New York Public Library, Photography Collection, Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints & Photographs
Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, New York 10018-2788
(212) 930-0830

Handy, Levin C. [Photographs of the Library of Congress.] Washington: 189-?
1 library-produced album, consisting of 24 silver gelatin mounted photographs of the Library of Congress. Views include: bird's-eye three-quarter facade, entrance stairs, exterior sculpture, and interiors of the building erected in 1897.

Various Locations

Handy, Levin C. United States National Military Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Washington: Levin C. Handy, 1903.

Souvenir viewbook containing 38 halftone plates with accompanying text. Illustrations include Officer's Section, Private's Section, Confederate Section, Arlington Mansion, the Meigs Sarcophagus, Tomb of the Unknown Dead, the Connecticut Monument, Burial of Maine's Dead, and View of Washington, D.C., from Arlington.

This pamphlet is rare and is available only at: University of California at Santa Barbara, Detroit Public Library, New York Public Library, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center (Freemont, Ohio), University of Texas at Austin, The Library of Virginia (Richmond), and George Washington University (Washington, DC).

Selected Bibliography

Collins, Kathleen. "Mathew B. Brady" and "Brady-Handy Collections." In Washingtoniana Photographs: Collections in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress, 1989: 24-31.

Milhollen, Hirst D. "The Brady-Handy Collection." In A Century of Photographs: Selected Photographs from the Library of Congress, compiled by Renata V. Shaw. Washington: Library of Congress, 1980: 38-50.