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Tours and Orientations - February 2023

Regularly scheduled orientations to the Prints & Photographs Division are offered virtually through the Finding Pictures series. These virtual presentations introduce the Prints & Photographs Division collections, services and search tools, and feature staff taking a closer look at an object or group of objects from the collections -- a chance to converse and appreciate together!

Individuals requiring accommodations for any of our events are requested to submit a request at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or [email protected]

Finding Pictures: Lens on American History — Japanese American World War II Incarceration

President Franklin Roosevelt’s February 19, 1942 Executive Order 9066 resulted in the incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. The Library of Congress collections are rich in pictorial materials that document the forced removal, incarceration, and resettlement of Japanese Americans. These were made by both government and private photographers as well as later works by artists who comment on this history. Cataloger Kara Chittenden and curator Micah Messenheimer provide an overview of notable collections in the Prints & Photographs Division, giving special attention to connections we have made to identify people in the photographs and provide more context on their experiences.

This virtual presentation will be recorded.

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023, 3:00 pm (EDT)
Register: https://loc.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_6O1U7xYxREyE9ZOXgn4Tpg

Black and white photograph of men loading trucks.

Closing of the Jerome Center, Denson, Arkansas. Truck loading scene in one of the block streets.
Photo by Hikaru Iwasaki, June 18, 1944. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.83857

Special Event: Tour of U.S. Tax Court designed by Victor A. Lundy

February 14th, 2023, 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. (EDT)
Arrive by 1:30 p.m. to get through security check.

*Register Here* (Registration is Required)

As a follow up to the January presentation celebrating the work of Victor Lundy, we are coordinating a special in-person tour of the Tax Court building in Washington, D.C. The tour is limited in capacity, and requires registration (see link above). Registered participants should meet at the Tax Court (U.S. Tax Court, 400 2nd Street, NW, Washington, DC 20217) 30 minutes in advance, to leave time for going through security. Government-issued ID (e.g. driver's license) is required.


Specialized Orientations

Specialized orientations for groups or classes can be requested with the Specialized Group Orientations Request Form.

Recent Orientations and Webinars

Slides for most of our virtual presentations are available in PDF format by request through the Ask-A-Librarian service.

January 2023: "Finding Pictures: Happy 100th Birthday, Victor A. Lundy!": The Library’s Prints & Photographs Division holds the archive of mid-century American architect Victor Alfred Lundy. In this virtual presentation, guest speaker, Donna Kacmar, FAIA, professor at the University of Houston, shared highlights from the collection in a discussion of Lundy’s work. Discover an under-appreciated master nearly a century after his birth! Recording available soon.

December 2022: "Finding Pictures: Our Digital Collections - Each Image Has Its Own Path": Digital Library Specialist, Taren Oellette, guided attendees through the various paths taken by the digital files we display online, highlighting methods used in working with both born-digital and digitized analog files. Recording available.

November 2022: "Finding Pictures: Purposeful Mastery - A Detailed Look into Robert Blackburn’s Early Color Lithographs": Robert Blackburn (1920-2003) was a MacArthur Award-winning artist, master printer and teacher. Together with Basia Nosek, the Library’s Harper-Inglis post-graduate conservation research fellow, and fine prints curator, Katherine Blood, the audience took a closer look at some of Blackburn’s visually and technically stunning early color lithographs from the Prints & Photograph’s Collections. Recording available.

November 2022: "Finding Pictures: The 125th Anniversary of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress": Reference Specialist, Kristi Finefield, explored the 1897 building through a selection of nearly 1000 newly digitized architectural drawings. Recording available.

September 2022: "Finding Pictures: Art of the Book": Curators Adam Silvia and Sara Duke featured photographically illustrated books and illustrations for books from the Prints & Photographs Division collections. Search techniques were highlighted along with related online resources.

August 2022: "Finding Pictures: Latina/Latino Graphic Art & Artists": A visual exploration of dynamic contemporary artist prints, posters, and drawings from the Library�s collections. Hispanic Reading Room reference librarian Maria Daniela Thurber and Prints & Photographs Division curator Katherine Blood featured works created by a variety of artists and highlighted online resources and search techniques. Recording available.

August 2022: "Object Lesson: Landscapes through the Lens of Laura Gilpin": In this Object Lesson, Curator Micah Messenheimer explored how Gilpin both drew on and broke from tradition to present a deeply human landscape through the lens of her camera. Recording available.

July 2022: "Finding Pictures: Using and Making Online Finding Aids": Archivists provided a behind-the-scenes introduction to the Prints & Photographs Division’s online finding aids, documents that describe and inventory archival collections. The presentation covered using finding aids to search our collections as well as a deep dive into the tools we use to create web-based archival finding aids.

July 2022: "Object Lesson: The Work Projects Administration (WPA) Poster Collection": This collection is a Library favorite and totals over 900 posters that put artists back to work for travel, tourism, recreation, and public health programs among others. The presentation from Reference Librarian, Hanna Soltys, discussed collection history, the different types of posters you can find, and how to download high resolution images. Recording available.

Previous Virtual Presentations

Virtual presentation topics from 2021-2022. Slides for most of our virtual presentations are available in PDF format by request through the Ask-A-Librarian service.

June 2022: "Finding Pictures: Orientation to the Prints & Photographs Division" Recording available

June 2022: "Object Lesson: Fan Art as a Record of Popular Culture" Recording available

May 2022: "Object Lesson: Gadgets in the Harris & Ewing Collection" Recording available

April 2022: "Object Lesson Series Celebrating the 110th Anniversary of the Cherry Blossom Tree Gift and US-Japan Friendship" Recordings available

April 2022: "Finding Pictures: Deaf History" Recording available

March 2022: "Object Lesson: Not an Ostrich and Other Images from America’s Library" Recording available

March 2022: "Finding Pictures: Women Architects and Designers"

February 2022: "Object Lesson: The Changing Face of Washington, D.C. through the U. S. News and World Report Magazine Photograph Collection" Recording available

February 2022: "Finding Pictures: African Americans in the Military"

January 2022: "Finding Pictures: New to See and Discover at the Library of Congress"

December 2021: "Subject Indexing Pictures for All"

December 2021: "Object Lesson: Wartime Sewing Culture Through FSA Images"

November 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: Native American History and Visual Culture"

November 2021: "Object Lesson: Lower Manhattan Expressway by architect Paul Rudolph"

October 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: Photography of Latin America and the Caribbean"

September 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: Fashion"

August 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: Picturing Work and Labor Themes"

July 2021: "Object Lesson: What are the Sources of Architects' Ideas?"

July 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: Photographic Processes"

June 2021: "Object Lesson: What is a Blueprint?"

June 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: Commemorating Pride Month with LGBTQ+ Images"

May 2021: "Intern Showcase: Discoveries through Pictures; African Americans in the Civil War Era"

May 2021: "Object Lesson: Artist Toni Lane's Pandemic Self-Portrait"

May 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: Asian Americans & Visual Culture"

April 2021: "Object Lesson: Spider-Man"

April 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: WPA Posters"

March 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: Women in Sports"

February 2021: "Prints & Photographs Virtual Orientation: Basic Printmaking Processes"

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