Digital Collections

This page highlights selected collections which are available online with digital image content, contextual esays and bibliographies. In total, the Prints & Photographs Division has more than 1.5 million items viewable online, including both born-digital works and digital reproductions of original material.

You can explore these highlights and our other materials through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

Additionally, you can keep up on Prints & Photographs Division online collections and activities by subscribing to the Picture This blog and checking out our thematic albums on Flickr external link.

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    Collection
    Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the…
    • Contributor: Federal Writers' Project - Library of Congress. Manuscript Division - Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division
    • Date: 2001

    Collection Items: View 603 Items

  • Collection
    By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s 2007 marks the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's rookie season for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When he stepped onto Ebbets field on April 15th, 1947, Robinson became the first African American in the…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - Library of Congress. Manuscript Division - Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division
    • Date: 1998

    Collection Items: View 77 Items

  • Collection
    College Women's Association of Japan Print Show Collection More than 180 artists living and working in Japan created the 212 fine art prints in the College Women's Association of Japan Print Show Collection. The prints, dating primarily from 2003 to…
    • Contributor: College Women's Association of Japan
    • Date: 1987

    Collection Items: View 214 Items

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    Brumfield Collection William C. Brumfield, Professor of Russian Studies at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, has extensively photographed and written about the wooden architecture of the Russian North, the jumping-off point for the explorers,…
    • Contributor: Brumfield, William Craft
    • Date: 1987

    Collection Items: View 1,139 Items

  • Collection
    Highsmith (Carol M.) Archive Photographs of landmark buildings and architectural renovation projects in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States. The first 23 groups of photographs contain more than 2,500 images and date from 1980 to…
    • Contributor: Highsmith, Carol M.
    • Date: 1980

    Collection Items: View 70,224 Items

  • Collection
    Sikkim Photos (Kandell Collection) This selection of 300 images portrays the people and landscape of a kingdom high in the Himalaya Mountains. Sikkim, now part of India, borders on Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. Dr. Kandell captured…
    • Contributor: Tse Ten Tashi - Kandell, Alice S.
    • Date: 1965

    Collection Items: View 373 Items

  • Collection
    Korab Collection Represented in this online collection is a selection from the Korab Collection. Included are: Almost 800 photographs by Balthazar Korab documenting 19 projects designed by renowned architect Eero Saarinen (1910-1961). Included are…
    • Contributor: Korab, Balthazar
    • Date: 1955

    Collection Items: View 2,473 Items

  • Collection
    Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), America's most well-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese-Americans interned there during World War II. For the first time, digital scans…
    • Contributor: Adams, Ansel
    • Date: 1943

    Collection Items: View 258 Items

  • Collection
    Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Color Photographs Photographers working for the U.S. government's Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) between 1939 and 1944 made approximately 1,600 color photographs that depict life in the…
    • Contributor: Rothstein, Arthur - Rous, John - Wolcott, Marion Post - Collier, John - Liberman, Howard - United States. Farm Security Administration - Delano, Jack - Lee, Russell - United States. Office of War Information - Rosskam, Louise ... Rothstein, Arthur - Rous, John - Wolcott, Marion Post - Collier, John - Liberman, Howard - United States. Farm Security Administration - Delano, Jack - Lee, Russell - United States. Office of War Information - Rosskam, Louise - Hollem, Howard R. - Palmer, Alfred T. - Feininger, Andreas - Sherwood, Mark - Downey, Jack - Bransby, David - Jacobs, Fenno - Dixon, Royden - Rittase, William M. - Siegel, Arthur S. - Collins, Marjory - Vachon, John
    • Date: 1939

    Collection Items: View 1,623 Items

  • Collection
    Look Collection The Look Magazine Photograph Collection is a vast photographic archive created to illustrate Look Magazine and related publications produced by companies founded by Gardner Cowles. The cataloged portion of the collection totals…
    • Contributor: Cowles Communications, Inc
    • Date: 1937

    Collection Items: View 7,949 Items

  • Collection
    Posters: Spanish Civil War Posters The collection consists of approximately 120 posters created between 1936 and 1939 during the Spanish Civil War.
    • Contributor: Bardasano, José - Puyol, Ramón - Fontseré, Carles - Unión General De Trabajadores De España - Falange Española. Jefatura Nacional De Prensa Y Propaganda. Seccion Mural - Catalonia (Spain). Comissariat De Propaganda - Spain. Ministerio De Instrucción Pública Y Sanidad - Confederación Nacional Del Trabajo (Spain) - F.A.I. (Organization : Spain) - Hinsberger, Aleix
    • Date: 1936

    Collection Items: View 126 Items

  • Collection
    Posters: WPA Posters This collection consists of 907 posters produced from 1936 to 1943 by various branches of the WPA. Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress's collection of more…
    • Date: 1936

    Collection Items: View 947 Items

  • Collection
    Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives The photographs of the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. This U.S. government photography project was…
    • Contributor: United States. Farm Security Administration - United States. Office of War Information
    • Date: 1935

    Collection Items: View 171,048 Items

  • Collection
    Lomax Collection The collection includes 400 snapshot photographs made in the course of sound recording expeditions carried out by John Avery Lomax, Alan Lomax, and Ruby Terrill Lomax, between 1934 and ca. 1950 for…
    • Contributor: Archive of American Folk Song - Lomax, John A. (John Avery) - Lomax, Ruby T. (Ruby Terrill) - Lomax, Alan
    • Date: 1934

    Collection Items: View 451 Items

  • Collection
    Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey Overview of the HABS/HAER/HALS collections, which document achievements in architecture, engineering, and landscape design from the 17th-20th centuries in the United States and its territories through measured drawings, photographs, and written historical…
    • Contributor: Historic American Buildings Survey
    • Date: 1933

    Collection Items: View 45,882 Items

  • Collection
    Cartoon Drawings: Herblock Collection Herbert L. Block (1909-2001), known to the world as Herblock, was one of the most influential political commentators and editorial cartoonists in American history. His long chronicle of major social and political…
    • Contributor: Block, Herbert
    • Date: 1930

    Collection Items: View 9,242 Items

  • Collection
    Posters: Yanker Poster Collection The Yanker Poster Collection includes more than 3,000 political, propaganda, and social issue posters and handbills, dating 1927-1980. Most posters are from the United States, but over 55 other countries and the…
    • Contributor: Yanker, Gary
    • Date: 1927

    Collection Items: View 3,501 Items

  • Collection
    Van Vechten Collection Comprised of 1,395 photographs taken by American photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) between 1932 and 1964, the bulk of the collection consists of portrait photographs of celebrities, including many figures from the…
    • Contributor: Van Vechten, Carl - Taylor, Prentiss - Mauriber, Saul - Lutz, Mark
    • Date: 1927

    Collection Items: View 1,417 Items

  • Collection
    Horydczak Collection The Theodor Horydczak Collection (about 14,350 photographs online) documents the architecture and social life of the Washington metropolitan area in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, including exteriors and interiors of commercial, residential,…
    • Contributor: Horydczak, Theodor
    • Date: 1915

    Collection Items: View 14,331 Items

  • Collection
    Posters: World War I Posters This collection makes available online approximately 1,900 posters created between 1914 and 1920. Most relate directly to the war, but some German posters date from the post-war period and illustrate events such…
    • Date: 1914

    Collection Items: View 1,871 Items

  • Collection
    National Photo Company Collection This collection documents virtually all aspects of Washington, D.C., life. During the administrations of Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, the National Photo Company supplied photographs of current news events in Washington,…
    • Contributor: National Photo Company
    • Date: 1909

    Collection Items: View 35,615 Items

  • Collection
    National Child Labor Committee Collection Working as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Lewis Hine (1874-1940) documented working and living conditions of children in the United States between 1908 and 1924. The NCLC…
    • Contributor: National Child Labor Committee (U.S.) - Hine, Lewis Wickes
    • Date: 1908

    Collection Items: View 5,127 Items

  • Collection
    Harris & Ewing Collection Background and Scope of the Collection The Harris & Ewing, Inc. Collection of photographic negatives includes glass and film negatives taken by Harris & Ewing, Inc., which provide excellent coverage of Washington…
    • Contributor: Harris & Ewing
    • Date: 1905

    Collection Items: View 41,543 Items

  • Collection
    Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Originally published under the title “The Prokudin-Gorskii Collection of Early 20th Century Color Photographs of Russia at the Library of Congress: Unexpected Consequences of the Digitization of the Collection, 2000-2017,” in Slavic…
    • Contributor: Prokudin-Gorskiĭ, Sergeĭ Mikhaĭlovich
    • Date: 1905

    Collection Items: View 2,610 Items

  • Collection
    Curtis (Edward S.) Collection The Curtis collection consists of more than 2,400 silver-gelatin, first generation photographic prints--some of which are sepia-toned--made from Curtis's original glass negatives. Most of the photographic prints are 5" x 7" although…
    • Contributor: Curtis, Edward S.
    • Date: 1899

    Collection Items: View 1,181 Items

  • Collection
    African American Photographs Assembled for 1900 Paris Exposition The Paris Exposition of 1900 (Exposition universelle internationale de 1900) devoted a building to matters of "social economy." The United States section of the building featured an exhibit that, according to W.…
    • Contributor: Calloway, Thomas J. - Daniel Murray Collection (Library of Congress) - Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt)
    • Date: 1899

    Collection Items: View 557 Items

  • Collection
    Matson (G. Eric and Edith) Photograph Collection This collection is a rich source of historical images of the Middle East. The majority of the images depict Palestine (present day Israel and the West Bank) from 1898 to 1946. Most…
    • Contributor: Matson Photo Service - American Colony (Jerusalem). Photo Department
    • Date: 1898

    Collection Items: View 22,061 Items

  • Collection
    Wright Brothers Negatives The first powered flight was made by Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk, N.C., on December 17, 1903, the result of years of experiments and design by the Wright brothers, who were operators…
    • Contributor: Wright, Wilbur - Wright, Orville
    • Date: 1897

    Collection Items: View 307 Items

  • Collection
    Gottscho-Schleisner Collection The collection of more than 45,000 items (negatives, transparencies and prints) came to the Library of Congress in the early 1980s. The online collection provides access to 29,000 negatives and color transparencies.…
    • Contributor: Schleisner, William H. (William Herman) - Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc - Gottscho, Samuel H. (Samuel Herman)
    • Date: 1896

    Collection Items: View 29,010 Items

  • Collection
    Genthe Collection Arnold Genthe (1869-1942) was an internationally recognized photographer working in the soft-focus pictorialist style. The Library of Congress acquired approximately 20,000 items from his unclaimed studio after his death.
    • Contributor: Genthe, Arnold
    • Date: 1896

    Collection Items: View 16,862 Items

  • Collection
    World's Transportation Commission This collection contains nearly nine hundred images by American photographer William Henry Jackson. In addition to railroads, elephants, camels, horses, sleds and sleighs, sedan chairs,rickshaws, and other types of transportation, Jackson photographed…
    • Contributor: Jackson, William Henry
    • Date: 1894

    Collection Items: View 888 Items

  • Collection
    Photochrom Prints Contains almost 6,000 views of Europe and the Middle East and 500 views of North America. Published primarily from the 1890s to 1910s, these prints were created by the Photoglob Company in…
    • Contributor: Photoglob Co - Detroit Publishing Co
    • Date: 1890

    Collection Items: View 7,501 Items

  • Collection
    Grabill Collection The one hundred and eighty-eight photographs sent by John C.H. Grabill to the Library of Congress for copyright protection between 1887 and 1892 are thought to be the largest surviving collection of…
    • Contributor: Grabill, John C. H.
    • Date: 1887

    Collection Items: View 193 Items

  • Collection
    Baseball Cards The Benjamin K. Edwards Collection includes 2,100 early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914. Distributed in cigarette packs, these cards were the forerunners of modern sports trading cards. They portray such…
    • Contributor: American Tobacco Company
    • Date: 1887

    Collection Items: View 2,129 Items

  • Collection
    Detroit Publishing Company Includes over 25,000 glass negatives and transparencies as well as about 300 color photolithograph prints, mostly of the eastern United States. Subjects strongly represented in the collection include city and town views,…
    • Contributor: Jackson, William Henry - Detroit Publishing Co - Johnston, J. S. (John S.) - Glover. L. S. (Lycurgus S.) - Peabody, Henry G. (Henry Greenwood) - Byron (Firm : New York, N.Y.) - Hart, Edward H.
    • Date: 1880

    Collection Items: View 25,173 Items

  • Collection
    Abdul Hamid II Collection This collection contains 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They portray the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II and…
    • Contributor: Sebah & Joaillier - Abdullah Frères - Abdülhamid II
    • Date: 1880

    Collection Items: View 1,825 Items

  • Collection
    Carpenter Collection The more than 15,000 images in the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection represent the extensive photographic files assembled by Frank G. Carpenter and his daughter Frances to illustrate his popular writings on…
    • Contributor: Carpenter, Frances - Carpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
    • Date: 1880

    Collection Items: View 1,823 Items

  • Collection
    Lamb Studios Archive This online presentation offers images of nearly 2,500 design sketches for stained glass windows, murals, mosaics, furnishings, metalwork, and interior architecture. The drawings feature striking watercolors created from the 1860s to the…
    • Contributor: J. & R. Lamb Studios
    • Date: 1869

    Collection Items: View 2,456 Items

  • Collection
    Johnston (Frances Benjamin) Collection NEW! See Gardens and Historic Houses in more than 1,000 hand-colored photos Collection Overview: Lantern Slides for Garden & Historic House Lectures Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) was one of the first American…
    • Contributor: Johnston, Frances Benjamin
    • Date: 1864

    Collection Items: View 3,150 Items

  • Collection
    Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South Noted architectural photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) created a systematic record of early American buildings and gardens called the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South (CSAS). This collection, created primarily…
    • Contributor: Carnegie Corporation of New York - Johnston, Frances Benjamin
    • Date: 1864

    Collection Items: View 6,965 Items