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This web site contains 280,000+ digital images across 42 collections. The front page of this web site lists the collections thematically. This page lists the collections alphabetically.

  • Bain News Collection. PHOTOS. The George Grantham Bain Collection represents the photographic files of one of America's earliest news picture agencies. The collection richly documents sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, political activities including the woman suffrage campaign, conventions and public celebrations. The photographs Bain produced and gathered for distribution through his news service were worldwide in their coverage, but there was a special emphasis on life in New York City. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1900s to the mid-1920s, but scattered images can be found as early as the 1860s and as late as the 1930s.
  • Baseball Card Collection. 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 legendary figures of the game as Ty Cobb stealing third base for Detroit, Tris Speaker batting for Boston, and pitcher Cy Young posing in his Cleveland uniform.
  • Child Labor Collection. PHOTOS. 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 photos are useful for the study of labor, reform movements, children, working class families, education, public health, urban and rural housing conditions, industrial and agricultural sites, and other aspects of urban and rural life in America in the early twentieth century.
  • Civil War Map Collection. MAPS. The maps, charts, and atlases depict battles, troop positions and movements, engagements, and fortifications. Also included are reconnaissance maps, sketch maps, coastal charts, and theater of war maps.
  • Civil War Photo Collection. PHOTOS. Photos made during and in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War.
  • Edward S. Curtis Collection. PHOTOS. Native American photos photos from the Edward S. Curtis Collection, most 1907-1930, that focus on the Great Plains, Great Basin, Plateau Region, Southwest, California, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska.
  • Daguerreotype Collection. PHOTOS. Earliest type of photography 1839 to 1864. LOC Description: "Portrait daguerreotypes produced by the Mathew Brady studio make up the major portion of the collection. The collection also includes early architectural views by John Plumbe, several Philadelphia street scenes, early portraits by pioneering daguerreotypist Robert Cornelius, studio portraits by black photographers James P. Ball and Francis Grice, and copies of painted portraits."
  • Detroit Publishing Collection. PHOTOS. The photographs were made in a variety of locations. Most depict scenes in the United States (chiefly east of the Mississippi), together with some photographs of other nations in the Americas, Europe, and copies of paintings. Prominent subjects include buildings and views in towns and cities, colleges and universities, battleships and yachts, resorts, natural landmarks, and industry.
  • Documentary Drawings Collection. DRAWINGS. 1783-1865. Primarily eyewitness sketches of Civil War scenes and events, including military personnel, battles, civilian activities, and landscapes. Also includes portraits, and American landscapes and structures from earlier periods.
  • DuBois/Paris Exhibition Collection. PHOTOS. 1899. Photos gathered for use in the American Negro Exhibit at the Paris Exposition, consisting of portraits and scenes of education, work, and daily life. Includes more than 360 photos presented by W.E.B. Du Bois."
  • Farm Security Administration (FSA) Set 1. PHOTOS. 1935-1945. Photos documenting rural and urban conditions and lifestyles in the U.S. and its territories; a few in Canada. Includes negatives the FSA/OWI did not print, many of which lack identifying information.
  • FSA Office of War Information Set 2. PHOTOS. 1935-1945. Photos documenting rural and urban conditions and lifestyles in the U.S. and its territories; a few in Canada. Includes negatives the FSA/OWI did not print, many of which lack identifying information
  • FSA Office of War Information Set 3. PHOTOS. 1935-1945. Photos documenting rural and urban conditions and lifestyles in the U.S. and its territories; a few in Canada. Includes negatives the FSA/OWI did not print, many of which lack identifying information
  • FSA Office of War Information Set 4. PHOTOS. 1935-1945. Photos documenting rural and urban conditions and lifestyles in the U.S. and its territories; a few in Canada. Includes negatives the FSA/OWI did not print, many of which lack identifying information
  • John C.H. Grabill Collection. PHOTOS. 1888-1892. Photographs by John C. H. Grabill of frontier life in South Dakota and Wyoming, including scenes of railroad construction, cowboys and miners, and the interactions between Native Americans and U.S. officials.
  • Harris and Ewing Collection. PHOTOS. 1905-1945. Portraits and news photographs by Washington, D.C.-based firm, showing people, events, architecture in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere.
  • Theodor Horydczak Collection. PHOTOS. 1923-1959. U.S., especially Washington, D.C., showing architecture and daily life.
  • Hotchkiss Maps Collection MAPS. American Civil War Map Collection.
  • Japanese Prints and Drawings Collection. GRAPHIC PRINTS. 1688-1915. Primarily woodcuts depicting actors, women, landscapes, scenes from Japanese literature and daily life, English and European visitors.
  • Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection. PHOTOS. 1850-1949, bulk 1897-1927. Photos produced and gathered by Frances Benjamin Johnston in the course of her career as a photojournalist, portrait and architectural photographer. Consists primarily of photos in the Johnston collection for which copy photos have been produced.
  • Lawrence and Houseworth Collection PHOTOS. 1862-1867. Stereographic halves from the series published as Gems of California Scenery showing major settlements, boom towns, placer and hydraulic mining operations, shipping and transportation routes, and scenic sites in northern California and western Nevada.
  • Louisiana Purchase Map Collection. MAPS.
  • Manzanar War Relocation Center. PHOTOS. 1943. Portraits by Ansel Adams, views of daily life, agricultural scenes, and sports and leisure activities. Japanese American internment center.
  • National Photo Company Collection. PHOTOS. 1850-1945, bulk 1909-1932. Photos assembled by Herbert French, who supplied photographs of news events in Washington, D.C., to subscribers. Features portraits of presidents and celebrities and scenes of social life.
  • Other Military Map Collection. MAPS. Mixed military maps, bulk WWII.
  • Panoramic Map Collection. MAPS. Map of cities and towns, bulk late 1800s.
  • Panoramic Photo Collection. PHOTOS. Of groups of people, landscapes, cities.
  • Photochrom Collection. PHOTOCHROM PRINTS. 1890-1905. People, architecture and sites in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
  • Popular Graphics Collection. 1600-1943, bulk 1800-1890. Prints and illustrated broadsides of historical, graphic and/or documentary importance produced in the U.S. and abroad.
  • Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection PHOTOS. 1905-1915. Very early color photo technology from glass plate negatives by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii using three-part color separation technique. Photographic survey of the Russian Empire, showing people, religious architecture, historic sites, industry and agriculture, public works construction, water and railway transportation routes, villages and cities
  • Railroad Map Collection. MAPS.
  • Revolutionary War Map Collection. MAPS. The American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789 represents an important historical record of the mapping of North America and the Caribbean.
  • Rochambeau Map Collection. MAPS. Cartographic items used by Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (1725-1807), when he was commander in chief of the French expeditionary army (1780-82) during the American Revolution. The maps were from Rochambeau's personal collection, cover much of eastern North America, and date from 1717 to 1795. The maps show Revolutionary-era military actions, some of which were published in England and France, and early state maps from the 1790s.
  • Stereograph Card Collection. PHOTOS. 1860-1945, bulk 1870-1920. Stereo card photographs, featuring sites around the world and popular topics such as expositions, industry, disasters, and portraits of presidents.
  • Tissandier Collection. DRAWINGS. 1773-1909, bulk 1780-1880. Pictures documenting the early history of aeronautics, with an emphasis on balloon flight.
  • Transportation and Communication Map Collection. MAPS.
  • Carl Van Vechten Collection. Photographs by Carl Van Vechten. 1932-1964. U.S. -- includes portraits of celebrities, especially artists, entertainers, and authors, including African Americans active in these fields.
  • WPA Poster Collection. POSTERS.
  • Wright Brothers Collection. PHOTOS.
  • World's Transportation Committee. PHOTOS. 1894-1896. Asia, Australia, and Oceania, showing scenes and sites, with an emphasis on transportation systems.
  • World War I Poster Collection. POSTERS.