Library of Congress Photos on Flickr

View summary report (PDF - 128 kb) | View full report (PDF - 1.3 mb) ( Download Adobe Reader for PDFs )

Offering historical photograph collections through Flickr gives the Library of Congress a welcome opportunity to share some of our most popular images with a new visual community.

We invite you to tag and comment on the photos, and we also welcome identifying information—many of these old photos came to us with scanty descriptions!

To view the photos on Flickr, go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/Library_of_Congress. You do not need a Flickr account to view the images; you would need to sign up for a free account to add comments or tags.

We are offering sets of digitized photos: the 1,600 color images from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, 1,500+ images from the George Grantham Bain News Service, selected panoramic photographs, and other photos from the collections that possess these qualities: they have long been popular with visitors to the Library; they have no known restrictions on publication or distribution, and they have high resolution scans.

We launched the pilot in January 2008. We have prepared a report on the results of the first nine months of the pilot. [ View summary report (PDF - 128 kb) | View full report (PDF - 1.3 mb). We look forward to continuing to see what types of tags and comments the images inspire.

With the launch of the Library of Congress pilot, Flickr began a new initiative called "The Commons." Cultural heritage institutions that join The Commons are sharing images from their photographic collections that have no known copyright restrictions as a way to increase awareness of these collections with the general public. For more information on The Commons, see: http://www.flickr.com/commons.

For more information about the Library of Congress project, see Library of Congress Photos on Flickr: Frequently Asked Questions.

View postings and comments relating to the project on the Library of Congress blog: January 16, 2008 | January 18, 2008 | March 20, 2008

View a webcast about the project, "Opening the Photo Vaults: A Web 2.0 Pilot Project to Enhance Discovery and Gather Input for the Library's Photograph Collections" (presented Jan. 29, 2008)

Links to external Internet sites on Library of Congress Web pages do not constitute the Library's endorsement of the content of their Web sites or of their policies or products. Please read our Standard Disclaimer.

Photos displayed in left column: Woman aircraft worker (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a34456); Going to town, Georgia (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a33874); C&NWR, Chicago yard, snow (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a34680).

Photos displayed in right column: Germany Schaefer (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.09131); Penn. Delegation (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.10588); Mast of Maine (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.09355)