Carol Highsmith is a distinguished and richly-published American photographer who has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Her growing archive includes tens of thousands of photographs from all U.S. states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, as well as Havana, Cuba. The photos showcase landmark buildings, architectural renovation projects, landscapes, Americans at work…
The Picture This blog from the Library of Congress shines a spotlight on landscape photographs. Micah Messenheimer, Curator of Photography, and a photographer himself, writes: When many people think of landscape photographs they think of wide-open spaces, empty of people. Yet, landscape photographs, by their nature, tell stories deeply tied to human interactions with the…
Funded by a grant from the Library of Congress, the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program at the University of the Arts leverages UArts faculty and local arts organization partners to utilize the vast cultural resources of our nation’s library for K-12 teachers and their students. The program’s unique professional development opportunities and resources focus…
Story Maps are immersive web applications that tell the incredible stories of the Library’s collections through narrative, multimedia, and interactive maps. The story maps are created within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based software platform created by Esri. Story Maps are chock full of primary sources, including photographs, illustrations, texts, newspaper articles, and even maps. “I find story…
Esther Bubley images +2,000 Esther Bubley biographical information & collection guide Women Come to the Front: Esther Bubley background information & select images Ladies Behind the Lens Library of Congress Blog November 29, 2016 Women Photojournalists Picture This January 8, 2016 Documenting America, 1935-1943: The Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Photo Collection streaming webcast Esther Bubley Photography Archive
Civil War photograph lessons & activities Devil in the Details: Examining Visual Material from the Civil War The Mathew Brady Bunch New Technologies and New Uses Using Sources: Civil War Photography Technology & Tricks What Do You See? Learning from the Source lesson plans Gettysburg Address Game On Civil War Prison Experiences Geography & the Civil…
Today in History–June 21–the Library of Congress features Samuel H. Gottscho and William H. Schleisner. On this date in 1934, Samuel Herman Gottscho snapped a photograph of the north facade of the Nebraska state capitol in Lincoln. A photography enthusiast, Gottscho was a traveling salesman for 23 year before becoming a professional photographer in 1925 at the age…
Today in History–February 27–the Library of Congress features Mathew Brady who photographed presidential hopeful Abraham Lincoln before a speech on this day in 1860. At successful studio photographer, Brady set out to document the people, places and events of the Civil War. The historical impact of the endeavor is priceless but at the time, left him penniless. Find out…
Today in History–October 28–the Library of Congress features editor and president of the National Geographic Society, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, born on this date in 1875. Just 9 years after immigrating from Turkey to the United States, Grosvenor began working as an assistant editor at National Geographic upon the recommendation of family friend Alexander Graham Bell. Just four years…
KMS (Ken Schels’ website)
Zoom into the picture above and you will see a face recognizable to many. The mother in the photo is Florence Thompson, most famously known as the migrant mother. This photograph was one in a series taken in 1936 by Resettlement Administration photographer Dorothea Lange. In this primary source lesson, students will examine photographs individually…
Today in History–July 16–the Library of Congress features photojournalist Walker Evans. On this date in 1936 Evans took a leave of absence from from the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to accept a summer assignment with Fortune magazine. Evans and writer James McGee worked together to document the lives of sharecropper families in Alabama, which would eventually be published in the book, Let…