Library of Congress puts thousands of photos on Flickr
File this under Coolest Damn Thing I've Seen All Day: The Library of Congress put over 3100 pictures on Flickr:
Library of Congress staff often make digital versions of our popular image collections available online as quickly as possible by relying primarily on the identifying information that came with the original photos. That text can be incomplete and is even inaccurate at times. We welcome your contribution of names, descriptions, locations, tags, and also your general reactions.
It's divided into two different sets:
These vivid color photos from the Great Depression and World War II capture an era generally seen only in black-and-white. Photographers working for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) created the images between 1939 and 1944.
Welcome to the daily news scene from almost a hundred years ago, as photographed by the Bain News Service in about 1910-1912. We invite your tags and comments! Also, lots more identification information. (Most of these old photos came to the Library of Congress with very little description.)
This selected set of 1,500 photographs is from a large collection of almost 40,000 glass negatives. The entire collection spans 1900-1920 and richly documents sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, and political activities, with a special emphasis on life in New York City.
I've only looked at a few dozen of these pictures, but they're just astonishingly beautiful. Many of them have a haunting quality, as well, and would make great Ficlet inspiration.
I Propelled this link the instant I saw it, if any propeller heads wish to vote for it.
Woah. Seriously.
Awesome find! Thank you so much for sharing! =D
Posted by: SandieK | January 16, 2008 at 08:27 PM
Too cool! I love these I'm still going through them. As a Graduate student in history these are just a wonderful find!
Posted by: sleepingmommy | January 16, 2008 at 08:53 PM
Wow.
I can't be the only person who as a small child asked her parents, "when did the world turn from black and white to color?"
Looking at the set from the 30s and 40s (which was the time when my parents were born) in color is like finally realizing the world *did* really exist then. It's like I'm seeing images of that planet for the first time.
Thanks so much for the link, Wil!! I'll be sharing this with lots of people.
Posted by: meredith | January 16, 2008 at 09:02 PM
i agree, meredith.
most movies from that period are in black and white, and thus that is how i always pictured that era.
these pics are such a fascinating look back.
thanks, wil
Posted by: mazurkr | January 16, 2008 at 09:41 PM
These are awesome. I trackbacked to you, and used all your hard earned typing (with attribution) to share this with what readers I have that don't read your blog.
One of the coolest internet finds I've seen in a while, some of these have made their way into my flickr faves already.
Posted by: SupRspi | January 16, 2008 at 09:51 PM
OK, this is weird. One of the very first photos is of a barn in the Catskills. The angle of the June sun puts the viewing angle as SE, and with the distance of the Catskill Mountains in the background, I would place this photo within 10-15 miles of the farm where I grew up. I can see why my grandfather bought those 400 acres in 1940. With a view like this, Brooklyn must've seemed a purgatory.
Posted by: leathej1 | January 16, 2008 at 10:04 PM
It's 3:45am, and I just woke up from the strangest dream. I'll give you a brief synopsis of it.
I meet Wil, at the "Library," where we witness planes crashing into the Pacific. We drive to help any survivors, and so on.
Strange that your post is about a library that contains lots of photos of planes. I'm kinda freaked right now.
Very weird.
Did any planes crash last night? Last time I dreamed of a plane crashing one actually did.
I find it freaky that Wil was in my dream, but even freakier was that Michael Jordan was my dad! Say what?
Crazy stuff there.
BTW, nice pics. I especially liked the ones of the P51 Mustangs, Cadillac of the sky!
Take care,
Mark.
Posted by: 1BigBank | January 17, 2008 at 01:02 AM
Propell'd! I spent a lot of time yesterday looking at those. So cool! :)
Posted by: angie k | January 17, 2008 at 06:15 AM
Wow! That's absolutely awesome!
Thanks for the link (which I will immediately share).
Posted by: starshine_diva | January 17, 2008 at 06:36 AM
Loved them, thanks for the link!
Can't wait to share them with my family.
Posted by: JMama3 | January 17, 2008 at 06:36 AM
When people whine about paying taxes to the feds they often forget about some of the cool stuff those taxes go for. Along with the Really Dumb Things are money goes to there are a LOT of Really Good Things...like this. Thanks for posting this, Wil!
Posted by: FusedLight | January 17, 2008 at 07:21 AM
Speaking as photographer...this is cooool!
I will be flinging linkage to a few friends!
I agree with the others, the 40's were in color?!? ;o)
These are awesome! Thanks!
Your Public Service Bonus Points are adding up!
Posted by: Merbrat | January 17, 2008 at 08:29 AM
This is indeed awesome. I'm preparing for a career change from medical newspaper copy editing to film preservation. Although these are still-photos, the existence of them all these decades later and the wonder they bring when shared with the world is part of why I want to be a film preservationist.
Posted by: JenBreier | January 17, 2008 at 11:18 AM
Those are awesome. I just burned up a half hour looking at the photos for the 30's and 40's and could easily keep looking all night.
Thanks for the link :)
Posted by: Jenn M. | January 17, 2008 at 01:13 PM
Did you see Louis & Lola the little Titanic suvivors form the 1910 photos? Too cool!!!!!!
Posted by: CYB | January 17, 2008 at 02:25 PM
I added some tags today because I had to look at the photos anyway.
Posted by: darsys | January 17, 2008 at 02:52 PM
Dang! I don't know if you read these comments - but thanks for the links to the pics. I've saved them, they are indeed awesome. I came over here from LiveJournal because I read something this morning I really thought you'd enjoy. I love Andy Borowitz, and when I saw the Fred Thompson info I immediately thought of you.
http://www.borowitzreport.com/ (Gay Tiger Attacks Huckabee post, 1-18-08)
Having you on LJ makes it seem like you're one of my friends. It's very cool.
Posted by: sapphirescarlet | January 18, 2008 at 06:04 AM
If you guys think these are cool, you have to check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Mikhailovich_Prokudin-Gorskii
These are the most stunning:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Prokudin-Gorskii-19.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Prokudin-Gorskii-08.jpg
Posted by: | January 19, 2008 at 09:17 PM
You guys should check out Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky's photos on Wikipedia, they are stunning. I tried to post some links here but my comment got blocked as spam. He did gorgeous color photography in the 1910's in Tsarist Russia. The photographs are mindblowing.
Posted by: kidcharles | January 19, 2008 at 09:20 PM
Wil, thanks for the post about these photos. They're fantastic.
Derek
Posted by: dbol39 | January 21, 2008 at 01:55 PM
Hi Wil: awesome find. even more awesome is that I work at the Library of Congress and get to see this stuff every day. Did you hear about the mislabeled Lincoln inauguration photos? That was neat. If you are ever in DC, let me know; I would love to give you a tour of the Library.
Posted by: Locutus | January 24, 2008 at 04:42 PM