Early Photographs

May 20, 2005 8:47 AM

The Washington Salon of 1896, and the images purchased from the exhibit for the Smithsonian, started the National Collection of photographs at the Museum of American History.These photographs are luminous and very beautiful.
A more extensive set of old landscapes, and who knows what else, is available in Scotland as part of the Visual Evidence project, which is digitizing photos from Aberdeen, Dundee and St. Andrew's Universities. The interface is a bit unwieldy still (the three databases are not yet integrated), but once you search for something like "Castles" you'll see beautiful pictures. The indexes (1, 2, 3) are a good place to start; and reveal that cataloging is not all it could be: Antelope Unclassified indeed! All three found through the Image Banks link of Artifact.
posted by OmieWise (2 comments total)

These are great. I find the composition interesting. Rather than using the advantages of their new medium, many of these photographs seem to be composed similarly to paintings of the era.
posted by caddis at 9:05 AM on May 20, 2005

Wonderful stuff. Check out the Blackpool pier on fire in 1938.
posted by languagehat at 5:45 PM on May 20, 2005