Tag Archives: library of congress
This Image of a Female Engineer is Incredible
Re: the previous post, about International Women’s Day and the labor movement: I’m in love with this 1942 Alfred T. Palmer image of a woman assembling a B-25 bomber engine, via the Library of Congress.
Found in the LOC: 18 Pics of Tuskegee Airmen, 1945
I’m not a “Rah-Rah Armed Services”-type person, but I absolutely love these images of Tuskegee-trained Airmen in Italy during World War II.
The first black Air Force pilots, these men fought for a country that still discriminated against them, a country that segregated them, treated them less-than and that refused to give them full rights when they returned home — and yet these men still fought with all their heart. That is patriotism, not that “must kneel for the National Anthem” mumbo-jumbo pushed so hard by right wingers.
Anyway, I’ve included seventeen other images after the jump. And, yes, there are more than a few “stare into the sky” poses, but that layer of cheese, somehow, adds to the effect.
And for more Found in the LOC, click here.
Found in the LOC: 28 Pics from WEB DuBois’ 1899 Show
In 1899, WEB DuBois, a man many of us associate with writing, traveled around America, compiling a collection candid pictures of African Americans living their lives at the turn of the century; these images were then sent oversea to Paris, where they were displayed at the Exposition Universelle of 1900, under the name “Exhibit of the American Negroes.”
It’s a harsh name, but where similar shows in the past had othered black people, trying to denote their “difference” from white people, DuBois’ show both showed diversity among black people — a revolutionary concept for some people back then and, sadly, today — and exhibited the stunning banality of everyday black life. Of course, we Americans know that in the background there was hideous racism and the ever-present threat of violence, which makes the composure in and of these pictures all the more remarkable.
Here are 28 of the nearly 400 in DuBois’ show; many of these were taken by DuBois collaborator Thomas E. Eskew, and all were shot in and around Atlanta, some, I believe, not far from where I live now… All were found over at the Library of Congress.
(And for more Found in the LOC, click here.)
Found in the LOC: 12 Jessie Willcox Smith Color Plates
The Library of Congress is currently presenting a show of groundbreaking female illustrators and graphic designers in America. Called “Drawn to Purpose,” and up through October of this year, the collection features work by luminaries like fashion illustrator Grace Drayton; Mary Hollock Foote, one of the first women to work as a professional illustrator; and Jackie Ormes, a groundbreaking black female comic book creator behind the serialized story Heartbeats.
And then there’s Jessie Willcox Smith, the exceptional talent who provided countless illustrations for late 19th century and early 20th century magazines — Collier’s, Century and Harper’s, to name a few — and popular books, such as Little Women and A Child’s Book of Country Stories. Perhaps her most famous work, however, are the illustrations Smith provided for the 1916 re-issue of Charles Kinglsey’s fantastical morality tale, The Water-Babies, about a kid who drowns and must reclaim his righteousness to make it back to land.
That said, for this week’s “Found in the LOC,” and to celebrate the Library of Congress’ Drawn to Purpose show, here are a dozen of Smith’s whimsical yet sinister Water Babies water colors, all from 1916. Above, “Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby” and “Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid“.
Ten more AFTER THE JUMP.
Found in the LOC: 21 Vintage Pics of Sled Dogs
Dogs are far more than man’s bets friend; they’re also our best assistants! First used in hunting expeditions at least 15,000 years ago, dogs became herders around 4,000 BCE, branched into health services, ie seeing eyes, in the 1500s and started fighting crime in the 1880s, when English bloodhounds were used to track Jack the Ripper.
But no interspecies cooperation is as intrepid and romantic than dog sledding: traversing long, often forbidding terrains with a pack of dogs, the use of which first began around 9,000 years ago. In honor of all the canine drivers and their hard work, here are nearly two dozen images of canines giving humans a helping hand. [I bet you thought I was going to say “paw.”]
Revel in their adorable utilitarianism, AFTER THE JUMP.
Above, a dog team delivering provisions in Alaska c. 1900.
(For more Found in the LOC, click here.)
Found in the LOC: 34 Pics of Animals Acting Human
You never know what you’ll find in the Library of Congress’ digital archives. I searched “pin” and came up with that image above: a kitten adorned in a dress and bowling. Obviously I had to know more, so I clicked on the “animals in human situations” link and was delivered to a collection of images by Harry Whittier Frees.
Turns out Frees, 1879-1953, was a pioneer in pet photography who posed baby animals, mostly kittens, doing all sorts of whimsical things. The New York Daily News called him “original LOLCat photographer,” and NPR recently ran a profile on the late artist. Spoiler: like so many creative minds, Frees wound up broke and broken.
But at least Frees’ campy art lives on — and it’s adorable. Except for the ones with the dolls. They’re creepy. So, without further ado, 33 other Frees images, all taken between 1914 and 1915, AFTER THE JUMP.
And for more Found in the LOC, that’s Library of Congress, click HERE.
Found in the L.O.C.: 5 X-Rays
I’m sure you’ve got this marked on your calendar, but just in case, today is the 122nd anniversary of German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen’s October 8, 1895, discovery of X-Rays. Yippee!
In honor of Röntgen life-altering, Nobel Prize-winning findings — a fluke that changed medicine forever: now doctors could see into the human body without all that messy slicing and dicing. – here are five early X-Ray-produced images found over at the L.O.C., the Library of Congress.
Image one, above, was taken in 1896 and comes with the caption, “Ein neues Licht legwet die Welt,” which translates to “a new light sets the world.”
See the rest after the jump.
And for more “Found in the L.O.C.,” click here!
Found in the LOC: 14 Udo Keppler Images
Udo Keppler’s often overshadowed by his father, the seminal satirical cartoonist and PUCK founder Joseph Keppler. And perhaps Udo was self-conscious of this patriarchal eclipse: the younger Keppler changed his name to Joseph after the elder died. But Udo K. had no reason to be anxious about his own work, nor about his legacy: he was known in his day and is remembered today as one of the most incisive, biting commentators in American history.
Best known for his anthropomorphism of Standard Oil as an earth-strangling octopus, Keppler’s work extolled all sorts of progressive social and political matters, like fighting for the little guy, while taking on anti-American but all-too-persistance stances like xenophobia and jingoism. Yet for all his progressivism on certain issues, Keppler’s politics weren’t completely black and white, as seen in the above 1903 cartoon that appears to encourage labor lock outs and the one below, an 1894 image that shows Catholic Cardinal and Vatican diplomat Francesco Satolli casting a menacing shadow across the States.
Regardless of such narrow thinking on these subjects, most of Keppler’s work leaned left, and I’ve included nine more resonant images BELOW.
(And for more “Found in the LOC,” click HERE.)
In Case You're Interested 