Historic Photos - Directory of Online Historic Photos & Archives

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Historic Photo Collections

1880's Newfoundland : A Pictorial
Sections include: Avalon Region ; Burin Peninsula ; Northeast Region ; Labrador Region ; Miscellaneous Photos ; Interactive Map.
From Canada's Digital Collection

[Adams, Ansel] Library of Congress - American Memory

  • Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar
    "In "Suffering under a Great Injustice": Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar, the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress presents for the first time side-by-side digital scans of both Adams's 242 original negatives and his 209 photographic prints (with the print on the left and the negative on the right), allowing viewers to see his darkroom technique and in particular how he cropped his prints."

Alameda County Library

Alubumen - albumen photographs: history, science and preservation
"Presenting the art and science of albumen printing, this site brings together 19th Century technical instruction, contemporary research, an online forum for conservation treatment and a wealth of images. This unique resource is dedicated to those who value the application of technology to the creative process of image making."
By John Burke, Walter Henry, Paul Messier, Timothy Vitale and Stanford University Libraries.

American Memory from the Library of Congress
Historical Collections for the National Digital Library.
The premier national collection of historic photos, prints, documents, motion pictures, maps, and sound records. A true national treasure and a must visit for all educational levels.

American Museum of Photography

American Quarterly

  • Hearsay of the Sun
    Photography, Identity, and the Law of Evidence in Nineteenth-Century American Courts
    "This Web site currently contains forty-two court decisions, articles, and excerpts from various fiction and non-fiction sources, including approximately 50 individual images...Thirty-five of these texts have not been previously published online or in any collection that I know of..."
    By Thomas Thurston

Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America
Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955
"The Gottscho-Schleisner Collection - (dead link) is comprised of over 29,000 images primarily of architectural subjects, including interiors and exteriors of homes, stores, offices, factories, historic buildings, and other structures. Subjects are concentrated chiefly in the northeastern United States, especially the New York City area, and Florida. Included are the homes of notable Americans, such as Raymond Loewy, and of several U.S. presidents, as well as color images of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

[Australia] Australian War Memorial - Online Exhibits

The Birmingham News - Special Report

  • Unseen. Unforgotten.
    "These Birmingham News photographs of the civil rights movement have not been seen by the public. Until now."

CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet)
The Northern Ireland Conflict (1968 to the Present)

  • Eamon Melaugh Photography
    portfolios include: Images of Derry ; British Army ; The IRA ; Protest ; Parade ; Riots ; Bloody Sunday ; Children and the Conflict.

Calvin Photographic Collection - (dead link)
"During the mid-1800's photography became a popular hobby and natural tool for scientists. Samuel Calvin, Professor of Natural Sciences at the University of Iowa (1873-1911) and State Geologist, took more than 5,000 glass plate negatives, which he used to illustrate specific geological features for class instruction, public lectures, and publications. The photographic techniques are of high quality, and the images are as aesthetically pleasing as they are geologically informative."
Sections include: Biography ; "Fixing the Image: Samuel Calvin's Vision of Iowa" ; Calvin Image Gallery ; Calvin's Scrapbook.

[Canada] A Canadian Document - (dead link)
"...provides a photographic vision of Canada from the 1940's to the 1960's. The exhibition showcases the talents of many accomplished Canadian photographers such as Richard Harrington, George Hunter, Yousuf Karsh, Frank Tyrell and many more. The works are drawn from the thousands of images that were commissioned by the National Film board of Canada and document in rich detail the diversity and spirit of our nation.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Museum

[Canada] Library and Archives Canada

  • Framing Canada: A Photographic Memory
    "Featuring photographs from various public and private collections, Framing Canada: A Photographic Memory presents a searchable database of digitized photographic images from 1843 to the mid-20th century. These images tell the fascinating and ever-changing story of how Canadians see themselves and their world."

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

  • Documenting History: Teenie Harris Archive
    "Numbering upwards of 80,000 images, this archive represents the largest single collection of photographic images of any Black community in the United States-or the world for that matter."

City of Sydney: Historical Sydney
- The Official Site

  • City of Sydney Archives Image Collection
    "The City of Sydney Archives is responsible for managing a collection of more than 120,000 archival photographs and other images of the City. So far we have digitised about 20,000 of them into ARCHIVEpix."

Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964
"...Congress consists 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 Harlem Renaissance. A much smaller portion of the collection is an assortment of American landscapes.
American Memory, Library of Congress

The Daguerreian Society

Digital South Asia Library (DSAL)
Project of the Center for Research Libraries

  • American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) - Photo Archive
    "The AIIS collection from the Center for Art and Archaeology in Gurgaon, Haryana, India, has over 125,000 photographs in the collection. The images fall into the broad categories of architecture, sculpture, terracotta, painting and numismatics."
  • The Hensley Photo Library, University of Chicago
    "...comprised of photographs taken during World War II by an American serviceman, Glenn S. Hensley...The images include a rich array of photographs taken in urban Calcutta in 1943-44 by Mr. Glenn Hensley, a professional photographer working on surveillance of the Japanese in Burma for the U.S. Army. During his off-duty time he used his ethnographer's eye to capture daily life in a number of locations around India. The majority of the images are from Calcutta and surrounding environs. Other locations including in this collection include Madras, Kharagpur, Agra, and Burma. The photographs and notes were prepared by Hensley for his wife to use in teaching world history courses in Missouri during World War II."

The Empire That Was Russia:
The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated
Sections include: Photographer to the Tsar ; Architecture ; Ethnic Diversity ; Transportation ; People at Work.
A Library of Congress [U.S.] Exhibit

Freeze Frame
Eadweard Muybridge's Photography of Motion
"...explores the famous photographs of animal and human locomotion that Muybridge made at the University of Pennsylvania between 1884 and 1887."
National Museum of American History

George Eastman House - (dead link)

George Eastman House - International Museum of Photography and Film
Photography Collections Online
"A steadily growing digital image sampler and browsing resource fro the vast photography holdings of George Eastman House."

Helios - Photography Online
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Sections include: The First Century of American Photographs ; Contemporary American Landscape Photographs ; American Daguerreotypes ; Photography Links.

Imaging Everest
"To mark the anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953, the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) in conjunction with the British Council in Nepal has created an exhibition called Imaging Everest from its collection of approximately 20,000 photographs taken on the nine Mount Everest Expeditions between 1921 and 1953. These expeditions were jointly organized by the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. The exhibition shows the importance of the landscape and people of the Himalayan region and tells the story of those involved in the first attempts to climb Everest ...This website provides an online version of the Imaging Everest exhibition and enables people all over the world to share this remarkable collection of photographs.
Sections include: The History of Everest ; Everest Expeditions in the 1920s and 1930s ; Tibetan People ; Religion in Tibet and Nepal ; Nepal in the 1950s ; Sherpas ; Tenzing and Hillary ; Mount Everest Expedition 1953 ; Biographies ; Everest Slideshow.
- The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

International Center of Photography

  • Aftermath: Photography in the Wake of September 11
  • Another Vietnam : Pictures of the War from the Other Side
    "An exhibition of photographs of the Vietnam War, as seen through the lens of North Vietnamese photographers ... contains over 120 black-and-white photographs by Vietnamese soldier-photographers. Most of these images are as little known in Vietnam as they are in the United States."
  • Hidden Truths: Bloody Sunday 1972
    "...probes one of the great tragedies of recent Irish-Anglo history, the shooting of Irish civil rights protestors by British soldiers in Derry, Northern Ireland on Sunday, January 30, 1972...this powerful exhibition address both the incident itself as well as the role of photography as witness within our culture."

Kodak: The Endurance
Frank Hurley: Hero of Expedition Photography
"By seeking beauty in icy bleakness, Hurley changed expedition photography forever. Instead of routinely recording day-by-day activities, Hurley chose to tell a dramatic story. He produced a saga that endures in his stunning photographs."

Library of Congress

  • Prints and Photographs Online Catalog
    "The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images providing access to about 60% of the still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division, as well as some images found in other units of the Library."

Life Magazine
Sections include: Classic Pictures ; Cover Collection ; Features.

Marquette University Libraries - University Archives Photo Exhibits

  • Dorothy Day
    "The Staten Island Years, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement is captured in candid photographs and letters from the 1920s."
  • Kateri, Our Sister
    "Christianity among the Indians of the Americas is exemplified in the religious lifestyle of Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian woman now regarded as a saint by her followers. Her importance to Native American Catholics, past and present, is illustrated with photographs and quotations from interviews."
  • St. Katharine Drexel
    "...(1858-1955) is the second American-born Catholic declared a saint (October 2, 2000). As presented here, her generosity touched the lives of thousands of African Americans and American Indians through numerous Catholic institutions across the United States."

Midley History of Photography - (dead link)
"R. Derek Wood's articles on the early History of Photography, the Daguerreotype and Diorama."
"This website presents academic research articles on the early history of photography published by R. D. Wood between 1970 and 1997. Three pages of unpublished correspondence on the subject are also provided, and, as time goes on, articles that have never reached printed publication will be added."

Oakland Museum of California

  • Helen Nestor: Personal and Political
    "The exhibition presents 33 vintage black and white photographs of the California social scene of the '60s and '70s, documenting such subjects as the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, nontraditional California families, Vietnam War protests, California feminists, mid-life women, the early days of busing in the Berkeley Unified School District, street life on Telegraph Avenue and the Haight Ashbury, and the People's Park movement."
    Special Feature: Nestor Free Speech Movement Photographs

PBS - American Masters - Robert Capa (May 2003)
"Nothing tells a story like a picture - and Robert Capa's pictures are some of the most famous in the world. Capa, the preeminent documentarian of 20th century war, photographed five epic conflicts on three different continents."
Sections include: Feature Essay ; Career Timeline ; Additional Footage ; Filmmaker Interview ; For Teachers.

Photo Tour of the Civil Rights Movement
"The following photo pages reflect a sampling of images from the national civil rights movement and events that happened in the Seattle area. Rather than being a comprehensive archive, it is meant to bring the events to life and encourage further research."
- From the Seattle Times


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Photographs of the 369th Infantry and African Americans During World War 1 - (dead link)
"The photographs included in this project are from Record Group 165, Records of the War Department. They are available online through the National Archives Information Locator (NAIL) database."
Part of The Constitution Community Lesson Plan.
This article was written by Joan Brodsky Schur, a teacher at Village Community School in New York, NY.

Picturing the Century - (dead link)
One Hundred Years of Photography from the [U.S.] National Archives
"...commemorates the end of the 20th century with a selection of photographs from the vast and varied holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). NARA photographs vividly capture the sweeping changes of the last one hundred years. They depict both the mundane and high political drama, society's failings as well as its triumphs, war's ugliness as well as its bravery. This exhibition is arranged in chronological 'galleries' as well as seven 'portfolios' of talented photographers well represented in NARA's holdings."

Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore
"Charles Moore's unforgettable images helped put public opinion solidly behind the civil rights movement. Seldom, if ever, has a set of photographs had such an immediate impact on the course of history."

Reflections in Black
A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present
Sections include: The First 100 Years ; Art and Black Activism ; Black History Deconstructed ; Selected Bibliography.
The Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution

SEPIA - Safeguarding European Photographic Images for Access
"...is a EU-funded project focusing on preservation of photographic materials...This website is also a platform and a source of information for anyone who wants to know more about the preservation of photographic materials

  • "To Have and to Hold"
    "This website will offer some guidance in finding information about the long-term preservation of all kind of photographic materials."
    Sections include: Processes ; Preservation ; Digitisation ; Links & Literature.

"Suffering Under a Great Injustice"
Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar
"...the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress presents for the first time side-by-side digital scans of both Adams's 242 original negatives and his 209 photographic prints, allowing viewers to see his darkroom technique and in particular how he cropped his prints."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

Tacoma Public Library - Northwest Room
Sections include: Washington Place Names ; The Genealogy Collection ; The Photography Collection ; Tacoma Building Index ; The Murray Morgan Prize ; Murray's People ; Ships & Shipping Database ; Unsettling Events ; Tacoma Obituary Index.

  • Photography Collection & Archive
    "The Tacoma Public Library's extensive photograph collection conveys a rich sense of Northwest history by documenting the social, industrial, commercial, and agricultural growth and development of Washington and the Pacific Northwest...More than 40,000 images are currently available online in a searchable database."

Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
"...contains approximately four thousand images featuring American cityscapes, landscapes, and group portraits. These panoramas offer an overview of the nation, its enterprises and its interests, with a focus on the start of the twentieth century when the panoramic photo format was at the height of its popularity."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

Through the Lens of Time:
Images of African Americans from the Cook Collection of Photographs
"Search or browse nearly 300 images of African Americans dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth century from the Cook Collection of Photographs. These digitally scanned images are of prints taken by George S. Cook (1819-1902) and Huestes P. Cook (1748-1951) primarily in the Richmond and Central Virginia area. "Through the Lens of Time" is joint project between VCU Libraries and the Valentine Museum/Richmond History Center."

Time Life Photo Sight
Photo Essays include: African Americans ; Campaigns ; Citizen Kane ; Country Doctor ; Halloween ; Hiroshima ; Mylai Massacre ; The Oscar ; Pioneer Women.

University of Miami - Cuban Heritage Collection

  • Cuban Heritage Digital Collection
    • Manuel R. Bustamante Photograph Collection - (dead link) [Highlights]
      "The Manuel R. Bustamante Photograph Collection primarily consists of hundreds of photographs of Cuba from the turn of the 20th century to the 1990s."

University of Washington Digital Collections

  • Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Photographs - (dead link)
    "The 655 photographs from the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition document the fair held on the campus of the University of Washington during the summer of 1909. Images include depictions of the buildings, grounds, entertainment, and exotic attractions at the fair."
  • John N. Cobb Photographs - (dead link)
    "...founder of the University of Washington College of Fisheries, was a photographer in his own right. He specialized in the documentation of fisheries in the United States, especially those in Alaska and the Pacific Coast. Among the photographs included in this digital collection are images of salmon, halibut and cod fisheries along the West Coast, whaling activities in Alaska, clamming and oystering industries in Washington, and images reflecting the first 6 or 7 years of the University of Washington College of Fisheries."
  • King County Snapshots: A Photographic Heritage
    "...presents King County, Washington, through 12,000 historical images carefully chosen from twelve organizations' collections. These cataloged 19th and 20th century images portray people, places, and events in the county's urban, suburban, and rural communities."

University of Wyoming - American Heritage Center

  • The Photography of Charles Belden - (dead link)
    "Most of these images were taken in the 1920s and 1930s on the legendary Pitchfork Ranch near Meeteetse, Wyoming."

When They Were Young
A Photographic Retrospective of Childhood
"The pictures in this exhibition recall the spirit, vulnerability, playfulness, unpredictability, restlessness, and dignity of children throughout generations and in diverse parts of the world."
- Library of Congress Exhibition

Many of Academic Info's History Digital Libraries contain photo collections: