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Photographs
Japanese Relocation
Camps
Ansel Adams
[Richard Kobayashi, farmer with cabbages, Manzanar Relocation Center, California]
Photographs, 1943
Prints & Photographs
Division
Ansel Adams photographed Japanese Americans who were sent by the U.S.
Government to relocation camps during World War II. This photograph shows Richard
Kobayashi, a Japanese American who grew cabbages while he was imprisoned in Manzanar
Relocation Center in California..
Treatment: The photographs were consolidated along the edges where the
emulsion was flaking and then matted.
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Photographing the
Depression
Jack Delano Photo Books
[Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Miners]
Photograph albums, 1939
Prints & Photographs
Division
During the Depression, the Farm Security Administration sent photographers all over the
country to document, in photographs, the living and working conditions of the people. Jack
Delano photographed these Anthracite Coal Miners in Pennsylvania.
Treatment: Prior to coming to the Library, these albums had been stored in
Puerto Rico, where they were subject to high humidity and heat. The metal spiral on the albums
was fairly corroded. Two albums of 41 and 29 photographs respectively, were dry cleaned and
some loose edges of photos were re-adhered. Color copy surrogates were made for researchers to
use because the albums were determined to be to fragile to withstand future handling. Custom
boxes were made for the originals.
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Washington Senators
Baseball Team
1913 Season
Schutz Group
Photographers
[Washington Baseball Team]
Panoramic Photographs, 1913
Prints & Photographs
Division
Treatment: The Conservation Division trained Prints and
Photographs Division staff to humidify, flatten, mend, and encapsulate several thousand
panoramic photographs which were then filmed and included on the Library's American Memory
Web site.
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Preparing to film item.
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| Hale and Perry counties and vicinity,
Alabama.
Walker Evans,
Photographer
[Hale and Perry counties and vicinity, Alabama]
Photographs albums, 1936
Prints & Photographs
Division
These albums present the renowned Evans' original printing and sequencing of 107
photographs he made for the classic book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, that he published
with writer James Agee in 1941.
Treatment: The Conservation Office worked closely with the Prints and
Photographs Division to recapture almost-erased pencil numbers in Evans' hand on the backs of
the mounts to restore the original order which, when completed, revealed it had been intended as
a film maquette.
Conservators cleaned pages soiled by sixty years of reading room handling, applied page
extenders, created post binders and custom boxes.
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"Pinkey's Blue Book"
Frances Benjamin
Johnston
[Pinkey's Blue Book]
Photographic Album,
Prints & Photographs
Division
The Library of Congress is the principal repository of the writings and photographs of
Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952), one of the first American women to achieve
prominence as a photographer. Trained at the Académie Julian in Paris, she studied
photography upon her return to Washington, D.C., in the mid-1880's and opened a professional
studio around 1890. Her family's social position gave Miss Johnston access to the First Family
and leading Washington political figures and launched her career as a photojournalist and portrait
photographer. One of her scoops as a correspondent for the Bain News Service was to board
Admiral Dewey's flagship with a letter of introduction from Theodore Roosevelt and interview
the "Hero of Manila Bay" en route from the Philippines.
Treatment: This photo album was made up of loose sheets held together
with red cotton twill tape, threaded through three side holes.. The cyanotype photographs were
attached by inserting the four corners of the photograph through slits on the page. The pages are
thin and very acidic.
Conservators inserted the heavy paper covers and each photo page were into a
polyester-encapsulated page, using an acid free barrier sheet as a backing. Loose photos were
attached to new backing sheets and also encapsulated. These polyester pages have an extended
guard to allow easier movement in turning the pages. The pages are held together in a post
binding using metal screws to attach new covers made of a cloth spine piece and handmade
papers over boards.
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Before treatment
Before treatment
Before treatment
After treatment
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"Angel of the
Battlefield"
Herman P. Riccius
[Carte de visite album, Clara Barton & family]
Photographic album, 1860's
Prints & Photographs
Division
Clara Barton (1821-1912), founder of the American Red Cross, was known as the "angel of
the battlefield" for her work caring for wounded Civil War soldiers. This carte de visite album
shows her family and friends.
Treatment: The carte de visite album
text block had become detached from its binding. The album
pageswere placed on extended guards; the text block was
resewn, and the album was rebound using the original covers.
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John Hay Civil War
Photograph Album
James Wadsworth Family
Papers
[John Hay Civil War]
Photographic Albums, ca. 1861-65
Manuscript
Division
Cartes de visite, miniature
portraits used as calling cards, were extremely popular
during the American Civil War. These photographic calling
cards, approximately 2½ x 4 inches in size, had been introduced
in France in the early 1850s, and their popularity quickly
spread throughout Europe and eventually to the United States,
where the corollary development of the photograph album
spurred a collecting craze in the 1860s that became known
as Cartomania.
In addition to assembling albums of family photographs, the public sought to collect images of
celebrities and views of favorite places and sites. John Hay (1838-1905), a personal secretary to
President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), is thought to have assembled the cards in this
album.
Each album page holds eight cartes--four on the front and four on the back--inserted in recessed
pockets. The openings have been numbered 1 through 200, possibly by the same hand who wrote
on the first page "Do not touch the pictures with the fingers."
Treatment: Prior to preservation digitization with the assistance
of the National Digital Library, the Conservation Division
made repairs to the album's leather cover and to the binding,
as well as performing some preservation work on several
of the two hundred cartes de visite.
This digital reproduction of the album allows viewers the opportunity to page through the cartes
as if they were perusing the volume in Hay's home. |
Before treatment
After treatment
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| National Child Labor Committee
Photographs
National Child Labor Committee
[Photographs by Lewis Hine]
Photographs,
Manuscript
Division
Photographs by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee that document
the use of children in textile mills and other workplaces. Hine was one of the first photographers
to use photography as a medium of social reform. Treatment: Photos
rehoused and reboxed. Using proper museum quality materials such as mylar, acid-free
envelopes and acid-free lignin free boxes. |
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Building
the Biltmore
Biltmore Estate
[George W. Vanderbilt Estate, Asheville, N.C.]
Albumen prints
Manuscript
Division
These oversize black and white photographs depict construction of estate and grounds
of George W. Vanderbilt's innovative estate outside of Asheville, N.C. Biltmore is famous for
the collaboration between premier landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted , forester Gifford
Pinchot, and architect Richard Morris Hunt.
Treatment: Albumen prints are printed on thin paper that curls very
easily. For exhibition, they are often mounted on a stiff paper board. In time, these boards warp
due to the pull of the photograph and to fluctuating relative humidity in the environment. To
repair these items, all were disbound, flattened, and rebound, then housed in a custom box to
prevent future warping.
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| Depression-Era Resettlement
Camps
Paul S. Taylor (text author) and Dorothea Lange (photographer)
[Establishment of rural rehabilitation camps for migrants in California]
Photographs, maps & bound volumes, July 1935
Prints & Photographs
Division
These 57 photographs were made and sequenced photographer Dorothea Lange and
submitted to the Resettlement Administration prior to the creation of Roy Stryker's famed
Historical Section in July 1935. When forwarded to Washington, D.C., the report became a
model for Stryker's project.Treatment: The Conservation Office
determined that no conservation intervention could take place without destroying the spiral
binding and thus altering the nature of the object. Therefore, a custom box was made for the
item and the Prints and Photographs Division created a preservation copy for researchers to
use. |
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Preservation of the Daguerreotype Collection
For a general overview of the Library's treatment of daguerreotypes, visit "Preservation of the Daguerreotype Collection" on the American Memory site.
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San
Francisco by Steam
David Dixon Porter
Collection
[San Francisco]
Daguerreotypes
Prints and Photographs
Division
This early scene of San Francisco, from
ca. 1849, shows Portsmouth Plaza. The image is from the David
Dixon Porter Collection. Porter visited San Francisco in 1849 as the captain of the steamship
Panama.
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Augustus
Washington Daguerreotypes
American Colonization
Society collection
Daguerreotypes
Prints and Photographs
Division Division
The American Colonization Society
collection, a group of material related to African American emigration to Liberia, contains thirty
daguerreotypes of Liberian government officials and other colonists. The sitters include Joseph
Jenkins Roberts, the first president of Liberia; his wife, Jane Roberts; Stephen Allen Benson,
Secretary of the Treasury under Roberts; and Edward W. Blyden, who became a prominent
educator in Liberia.
Five images have the name of the photographer, Augustus Washington, stamped on their brass
mats. Washington was a black daguerreotypist who operated a studio in Hartford, Conn., until
November 1853, when he moved to Liberia. An additional 11 images, housed in identical brass
mats and preservers, were also most likely taken by Washington.
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Daguerreotype
View of Capitol
John Plumbe
[U.S. Capitol, east front elevation]
Daguerreotype
ca. 1846
Prints and
Photographs Division Division
One of the earliest surviving photographs
of the Capitol, John Plumbe Jr.'s daguerreotype shows the building with its old copper-sheathed
wooden dome.
The photographer had hoped to sell "plumbeotypes," hand-produced lithographic images based
on daguerreotypes, of several Washington buildings, as well as likenesses of prominent
individuals. His endeavor was not successful, and very few plumbeotypes have survived.
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Earliest
Image of Honest Abe
Nicholas H. Shepherd
[Abe & Mary Todd Lincoln]
Daguerreotypes,
1846 or 1847
Prints and
Photographs Division Division
The earliest known portraits of President
and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln are daguerreotypes, presented to the Library in 1937 by their
granddaughter, Mrs. Charles Isham. The quarter-plate portrait of Lincoln was most likely taken
shortly after the 37-year old was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
It has been attributed to photographer N.H. Shepherd, who ran a gallery in Springfield, Illinois, in
1846-1847. This attribution is based upon the recollections of a member of the Lincoln and
Herndon law office.
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| Treatment: A
conservation survey of the Library's cased daguerreotypes revealed two main problems:
deteriorating cover glasses and unsealed daguerreotypes. The Library's conservators, in
consultation
with conservators from other institutions and Library curators, decided to retain the original
cover
glasses, rather than replace the cover glasses with new glass. (New glass gave a distinctly
different
feel to the object and was only used when the old glass was cracked or badly damaged.) Since
the
daguerreotypes are stored in a stable environment, where the temperature and humidity levels
are
monitored, it is believed that little if any deterioration will occur. When the daguerreotype
package
was reassembled, a sheet of Mylar was placed between the glass and the brass mat to prevent
the
possibility of future corrosion damaging the daguerreotype. Another piece of Mylar was
placed
behind the plate to limit the contact area of the sealing tape. The daguerreotype package was
then
taped together with Permacel J-Lar 910 tape. The taping process was carried out in a room
with a
low relative humidity (less than 40%) to insure that dry air would be trapped in the
daguerreotype
package. The preserver was replaced around the sealed daguerreotype and the daguerreotype
package was inserted into its case.
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"The
Devil's Den"
Anthony-Taylor-Rand-Ordway-Eaton Collection
["The Devil's Den," Matthew Brady Civil War Photos]
Photograph albums,
Prints & Photographs
Division
The collection of Civil War photographs included in American Memory represents a
portion of the
Anthony-Taylor-Rand-Ordway-Eaton Collection of Civil War Views housed in the Prints and
Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. The nucleus of that collection is the negatives
taken during the war under the supervision of Mathew B. Brady. After the war, these were
transferred to the photographic supply firm of H. T. Anthony Company as payment for debts
owed them by Brady. The negatives were purchased in the 1870s by Col. Arnold A. Rand and
Gen. Albert Ordway, veterans of the war, and collectors of war memorabilia. To Brady's
negatives, they added about 2,000 negatives made by Alexander Gardner, a photographer who
left Brady's employment early in the war to set up his own business. Rand and Ordway sold the
entire collection to John C. Taylor, who used the negatives to make stereographic prints and
lantern slides which he sold during the 1880s. In 1907 the negatives were bought by Edward B.
Eaton, who used them in several books he published on the Civil War. The most notable of these
was the ten-volume work, The Photographic History of the Civil War. In 1916 the collection was
placed in storage, where it remained until the Library purchased it in 1943. The Library's
acquisition included 7,500 original glass plate negatives and about 2,500 copy glass and film
negatives, providing a total of about 3,750 different views and about 2,650 different portraits.
After acquiring the collection, the Library made a concerted effort to copy the original glass
plates onto film, most often in an 8x10-inch format.
In 1961 the Library published a two-reel microfilm publication, Civil War Photographs,
1861-1865, which reproduced 1,047 copy negatives made from original negatives in the
collection. This selection of images was copied in 1991 for inclusion in American Memory. In
this microfilm publication, the photographs are arranged chronologically by campaign in three
areas of the United States. The three areas are: 1) the main eastern theater, 2) the Federal Navy
and the seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic coast of the Confederacy, and 3) the war in the
west. There are additional sections featuring Washington during the war, and portraits of
Confederate and Union officers.
In addition to the selection of images taken from the microfilm publication, the American
Memory collection includes about fifty images of enlisted men which are not part of the
Anthony-Taylor-Rand-Ordway-Eaton Collection of Civil War Views. Although there is no
written history of the origin of these photographs of ordinary soldiers, it is thought that the
Library copied them during the 1950s and early 1960s from original daguerreotypes and tintypes
in private collections. After copying, the original photographs were returned to their owners, but
the Library did not retain a record of their names and addresses. Any information on the history
or owners of these original photographs would be welcomed by the Library of Congress. Please
write to the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540.
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Southwest Native Americans
Charles Gentile
[ No. 1 - Series of photographic views and portraits of Arizona and Arizona Indian tribes
photographed by Charles Gentile and published by William H. Mardock & Co.]
ca. 1870
Prints & Photographs
Division
This album of photographs provides an interesting cultural and historical insight into Southwest America and the tribes of Native Americans who inhabited the area. Treatment: The photograph album was disbound and the pages were drycleaned. New line hinges were attached to the pages with an added paper hinge for support. Additional pages were added before and after the textblock in case endsheets could effect the photographs. The textblock was post bound.
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Early Color Photography
Sergei Michailovich Prokudin-Gorksii
[Windmills in the Yalutorovsk]
Photograph albums, circa 1910
Prints & Photographs
Division
On occasion, photography has served the interests of governments and rulers in surveying their domains and displaying the benefits of their regimes. On the eve of the Russian Revolution Czar Nicholas II of Russia commissioned a photographic survey of his empire by the educator and chemist Sergei Michailovish Prokudin-Gorskii. The product of the imperial charge was a comprehensive travelogue of Russia, the Ukraine, Siberia, and the Caucasus, and a milestone in the development of color photography.Treatment: The pages were removed from their old hinges. Fragile page edges were repaired using Japanese paper tinted with pastels to match original pages. Board corners were rebuilt for support and to fill in missing portions by layering similarly dyed Japanese paper. New linen hinges were attached to the spine edges of the board. A spacer the height of the board was added to the textblock between each page to ease contact between the photographs on each page, and a sheet of archival paper was inserted between each page to protect the photos from pulling off the next page. Tape was removed from photographs where it had been attached. The conserved textblock was bound in a post binding using a three-part construction of spine and back and front covers.
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