The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center collections are home to well over 1.5 million photographs documenting the history of the U.S. Army. The images span from the advent of photography before the Civil War to current operations. A small portion are available online. Researchers can identify and utilize photograph collections and individual images by following the online photograph collections usage guide below.
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Using the Digitized Online Photograph Collection
Thousands of historic images are available from our online digital archive collection of U.S. Army photographs. The USAHEC photography team digitizes and adds images to the collection, upgrading and improving it daily. If you cannot find the image you need in the digital collection, feel free to visit the collections and pore through the millions of physical photographs available to the public and researchers.
NOTE: The online images are for reference purposes only, and a watermark will be applied to any that are downloaded or printed. To learn how to receive a version of a photograph with no watermark, visit the Copyright and Restrictions page.
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Digitized Photographs by Time Period
- On the USAHEC home page, click on the large button in the top right corner entitled “Search our Collections”
- Click on the large “Photographs” link in the middle of the page.
- Select “Browse” at the bottom of the page.
- Either browse the collection via the time period you are looking for, or use the search box on the left of the catalog to look for a specific subject. Be creative in your search terms, as it may take a few attempts to find exactly what you are looking for!
- NOTE: If you are searching for Civil War Images, selecting the time period “Civil War” will search both the MOLLUS-MASS collection AND other Civil War collections. If you desire to ONLY search the MOLLUS-MASS collection, see below.
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The Digitized MOLLUS-MASS Civil War Album
In 2007, the USAHEC set out to digitize what is considered to be the single best Civil War photograph collection in the world. We are proud to present over 23,000 digitized images from 117 volumes of our Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States - Massachusetts Commandery (MOLLUS-MASS) Photograph Collection. The images from this Union officer veterans' organization collection are vast, comprehensive, and an invaluable piece of American military history.
To use the MOLLUS-MASS Collection,
- On the USAHEC home page, click on the large button in the top right corner entitled “Search our Collections”
- Click on the link on the bottom half of the page entitled, “MOLLUS-Massachusetts Online Photography Collection”
- Either browse the collection or use the search box on the left side of the page to search for specific people and terms.
Learn More About the MOLLUS-MASS Collection
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The Carlisle Indian Industrial School Image Collection
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School digital image collection was completed in 2010 and contains images of students, faculty, academic, recreation, and sports scenes from the school's heyday. An online gallery is available here.
To use the Carlisle Indian School digitized collection,
- On the USAHEC home page, click on the large button in the top right corner entitled “Search our Collections”
- Click on the link on the bottom half of the page entitled, “Carlisle Indian School Digitized Photography Collection”
- Either browse the collection or use the search box on the left side of the page to search for specific people and terms.
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Searching Non-digitized Photographs by Citations
The USAHEC staff continually digitizes photographs from our collection of millions of physical images. Tens of thousands of photographs are already online and available to patrons from anywhere there is internet access. However, if you cannot find what you are looking for online, you can visit our physical collections. Before you start diving in to the physical images, however, it is best to research our Photographic Citation Listings in the Photograph Card Catalog (instructions below). These listings contain references to many images in our collections, and by searching the listings, you can find out if we have what you are looking for before visiting the facility.
NOTE: While you are using the search function for the Photograph Citation Listings, type out FULL place names (Norfolk, not Norf), state names (Virginia, not VA), and unit types (Infantry, not Inf). Do NOT use the term "Regulars" in unit searches (12th US Infantry, not 12th Regulars). You can search for things such as "hospital", "musket", "tent", "insignia", etc.
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Photograph Card Catalog
To view listings from our Photograph Card Catalog,
- On the USAHEC home page, click on the large button in the top right corner entitled “Search our Collections”
- Click on the large button, “Reference Bibliographies / Finding Aids”
- Under the heading “Photograph Card Catalog,” click “Photograph Card Catalogue”
- Enter your search terms in the search panel. Be specific and creative with your search terms.
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Civil War Combined Search
View listings of image citations using a combined search of BOTH our MOLLUS-MASS Photograph Catalog and our Old Civil War Photograph Database:
- On the USAHEC home page, click on the large button in the top right corner entitled “Search our Collections”
- Click on the link “Digital Documents” in the horizontal black bar at the top of the page
- Click on “Browse”
- Click “Browse ONLY digital Finding Aids”
- DO NOT pick either of the two resulting options. Instead, use the search box on the left to search BOTH collections at the same time.
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