Services we provide
Assistance with our holdings of photographs, prints, posters, drawings, and architectural records, including those found in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)
Response within 5 business days

Visit the
Prints and Photographs
Reading Room Web page

Services we cannot provide
Permission to use images, except Seagrams County Court House Archives (see our Rights and Restrictions Information page)
Values of pictorial materials (see our Appraisal information for suggestions)
Answers for student assignments
Many questions can be answered consulting:
PPOC and reference aids, for example: portraits of presidents and other famous people, immigration, African American history
Information about obtaining copies.

Ask a Librarian:
  If you have a reference question, proceed
  to the online form; get answers via email

Contact us by phone or fax:
  Phone: (202) 707-6394
  Fax: (202) 707-6647

Send us written correspondence*:
  Prints and Photographs Division
  Library of Congress
  101 Independence Ave. SE
  Washington, D.C. 20540-4730

* please read - information on mail delays

Certain types of questions are better directed elsewhere:

Pictures of military/U.S. government subjects (ships, aircraft, military units and personnel) -- see our reference aid, "Sources of U.S. Military Images: Major Repositories."
Aerial photographs, patent drawings -- try National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic & Architectural Records unit.
Artist biographies or art history -- the Smithsonian American Art Museum welcomes such questions. Many local libraries can also assist.