Tours and Orientations - April 2024

Regularly scheduled presentations of collections from 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! Other public presentations are listed as special events and may be offered virtually or in person.

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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: Identifying Cased Photographs—Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, and Tintypes

Do you have a box of nineteenth-century family photographs stored in plastic or leather cases you've always wanted to know more about? Have you scoured estate sales and been intrigued by small portraits on glass and metal and wondered how they were made? Would you like to know how to best store and preserve your antique photography collection for years to come?
Join Photo Curator Michelle Smiley and Photo Conservator Rachel Wetzel for an overview of how to identify nineteenth-century photographs – including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes – as well as an introduction to the collection of cased images housed in the Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.

Wednesday, April 17th, 2024, 3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern)

Registration: https://loc.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_tuztgWxlQzG_hFAQRFCa6g#/registration

Half-length portrait of Christiana Williams Freeman, seated. Quarter-plate daguerreotype, ca. 1855. Robert H. McNeill Family Collection
LC-DIG-ppmsca-86803

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. Recordings of recent presentations are linked below as they become available.

February 2024: " Finding Pictures: Highlights from the Robert H. McNeill Family Collection" Archivist Leah Rios highlighted the career of African American photographer Robert H. McNeill (1917-2005), who documented 20th-century African American leadership and life in Washington D.C from the 1930s-1970s, in an overview of the newly processed Robert H. McNeill Family Collection. Recording available.

January 2024: " Finding Pictures: Subject Indexing Pictures Using TGM" Cataloging staff introduced the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials and P&P practices related to searching for and describing images using topical index terms. Recording available.

December 2023: "Finding Pictures: Cartoon Cavalcade" Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular & Applied Graphic Art, presented an insider's perspective on the wealth of cartoon art in the collections of the Prints & Photographs Division. Recording available.

November 2023: "Finding Pictures: Celebrating 90 Years of the Historic American Buildings Survey" The Historic American Buildings Survey is the nation's first federal preservation program to document America's architectural heritage. Special guest, Catherine Lavoie, Chief of the Historic American Buildings Survey of the National Park Service joined Reference Specialist, Ryan Brubacher of the Prints & Photographs Division to talk about the past and future of this important work. Recording available.

October 2023: "Finding Pictures: Presidential Pets"": Reference Specialist Kristi Finefield provided a visual tour of the menagerie of animals that have been Presidential Pets, with images selected from the collections of the Prints & Photographs Division. Recording available.

September 2023: "Finding Pictures: Illustrating Civil War Medicine" : Photography curator Michelle Smiley and Reference Librarian Jon Eaker discussed how photographers, printmakers, and eye-witness sketch artists pictured the vast and complicated arena of medical care during the deadliest military conflict in U.S. history. Recording available.

August 2023: "Finding Pictures: Photojournalism": Photography curators Adam Silvia and Kate Fogle provided an overview of the vast photojournalism collections in the Prints & Photographs Division. Recording available soon.

July 2023: "Finding Pictures: I Want You to Learn About the LC's Poster Collection!": Reference specialist Jan Grenci provided an overview of the poster holdings in the Prints & Photographs Division. Recording available.

June 2023: "Finding Pictures: Looking Closely - Visual Literacy with Prints & Photographs": Drawing on examples from photography to architectural drawings, staff led attendees through exercises in close looking. Recording available.

May 2023: "Finding Pictures: Stereographs-Seeing Photographs in 3D": Photography curators presented on the history and technology of the stereograph, and took a deeper dive into stereographic collections related to the Civil War and Timothy O'Sullivan's survey expedition stereographs. Recording available.

April 2023: "Finding Pictures: In Celebration of National Arab American Heritage Month": The Prints & Photographs Division celebrated Arab American Heritage month with a selection of pictures by and about the diverse Arab American community. Recording available.

March 2023: "Finding Pictures: Going to Bat for Baseball Collections": Baseball history can be found in many divisions at the Library of Congress, but this online orientation focused on finding visual materials specifically in Prints & Photographs. Featuring amateur, recreational, professional, and even congressional baseball, this presentation included searching tools and collections teaming with baseball visuals. Recording available.

February 2023: "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. Cataloger Kara Chittenden and curator Micah Messenheimer provided an overview of notable collections in the Prints & Photographs Division, rich in pictorial materials that document the forced removal, incarceration, and resettlement of Japanese Americans. The presentation gave special attention to connections we have made to identify people in the photographs and provide more context on their experiences. Recording available.

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.

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.

December 2022: "Finding Pictures: Our Digital Collections - Each Image Has Its Own Path" Recording available

November 2022: "Finding Pictures: Purposeful Mastery - A Detailed Look into Robert Blackburn’s Early Color Lithographs" Recording available

November 2022: "Finding Pictures: The 125th Anniversary of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress" Recording available

September 2022: "Finding Pictures: Art of the Book"

August 2022: "Finding Pictures: Latina/Latino Graphic Art & Artists" Recording available

August 2022: "Object Lesson: Landscapes through the Lens of Laura Gilpin" Recording available

July 2022: "Finding Pictures: Using and Making Online Finding Aids"

July 2022: "Object Lesson: The Work Projects Administration (WPA) Poster Collection" Recording available

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"