Posts from the Photography Collection

PIC is a collection of biographical data for over 115,000 photographers, studios, manufacturers, dealers, and others involved in the production of photographs.

Before you dive into that bowl of chips this Sunday, take a moment to appreciate Walter Camp, the man who gave you football. This guy, the fit, mutton-chopped “Father of American Football,” literally wrote the rules.

What would Hanukkah be without potato pancakes?

Why does a man, who believed that photography contributed to the “impoverishment of the French genius” let himself be photographed and therefore share his image with the world?

This incredibly stunning image depicts ancient architectural structures embedded within a cave of a large cliff. The image is often on view in art museums, even though the image was first created for a topographical survey. It is fully embedded with photography’s complex relationship to science and art.

Upon learning of the president’s death, the nation responded with shock, confusion, outrage, and sorrow. This tumultuous period was captured by the printing and photography of the time: both in immediate ephemera and later, more contemplative works.

What was the most viewed image on NYPL's Digital Collections platform in March 2015? It was a door.

Eugène Atget took relatively few pictures of people. There is a series dating from about 1898 to 1900 of people in the small trades (petits métiers): the ragpicker, the organ grinder, ambulatory vendors of herbs, lampshades, plaster statues, baskets. And then there is a small series on prostitutes, from 1921.

Helen Levitt was one of this century’s great photographers. Were I to say this about her great friend Walker Evans, it would seem like a tautology, rather like saying that Shakespeare was an important writer. Readers can judge for themselves why this should be the case, why one should need to say this about Helen.

Between January 1978 and April 1979, Nooney networked her way through Brooklyn documenting residences and their occupants, asking each for a referral to another willing subject. Over 150 families or individuals entrusted her to capture glimpses into their private worlds and personal tastes.

Frith made his photographs available in various formats that suited different budgets, from inexpensive stereographs to multi-volume books illustrated with tipped-in albumen prints. His books are currently on view in the Library’s exhibition, Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography.

The Photography Collection has recently acquired a rare brass locket containing twelve miniature albumen prints of the famous couple made shortly after their wedding.

The staff of the Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs were saddened to learn of the passing of Roy Colmer last week. Stephen C. Pinson, The Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Assistant Director for Art, Prints and Photographs, and The Robert B. Menschel Curator of Photography, provided the following remembrance of Colmer's life and work.

The Registrar's Office at the New York Public Library manages a robust outgoing loan program. We are responsible for all logistics and coordination of loans from the four Research Libraries to the borrowing institutions. Lending to different institutions accross the US and around the world allows our collection to be available to and enjoyed by many different audiences. We would not be able to reach these audiences without this important partnership with other institutions. This year 

The New York Public Library is pleased to announce the awarding of Short-Term Fellowships to support the following scholars from outside New York who will research the Library's archival and special collections between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013.

Dorot Jewish Division and Slavic, Baltic, and Eastern European Collections  

The George Washington Bridge (Photo: Jason Megraw)

Most New Yorkers when asked to name NYC landmarks will conjure up the familiar array of iconographic symbols that make up our city: the Statue Liberty, the Empire State Building, Times Square, the Ground Zero Memorial, etc. — but having grown up in Washington Heights, I can’t help but place the George Washington Bridge among the great monuments of Gotham pride. Ever since its completion in 1931, this stunning suspension bridge has remained a sight that never gets 

Recent Acquisitions: Prints and Photographs is on view in the Print and Stokes Galleries at The New York Public Library's Stephen A Schwarzman Building through June 30, 2011.

Presented in honor of the 100th birthday of NYPL's landmark building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, Recent Acquisitions: Prints and Photographs features an exceptional collection of print and photographic works by contemporary artists acquired by the Library within the last decade.

The 

Thursday, May 19, 2011 6 to 8 p.m. Vanderbilt Hall, Grand Central Terminal Free and Open to the Public

Grand CentralYou're invited! Join Jay Walder, Chairman, Metropolitan Transportation Authority; Paul LeClerc, President, The New York Public Library; and Kathryn Court, President and Publisher, Penguin Books; for a special book launch for Know the Past, Find the Future: The New York Public Library at 100, NYPL’s free Centennial book.

Enjoy a special guest appearance by the Harlem 

Today we most often encounter a photograph as a digital image — its only physical presence is the screen from which it shines: a television, computer, or mobile device. Disembodied, the digital image can exist in infinite places at once, with no physical characteristics of its own.

Not so — the photographic print. While multiple prints can be made from a negative, each photograph is a finite, unique thing: it has a physical size and a surface texture; it can be folded, mailed, written upon, and touched (but please don’t touch the surface!); and it