Cara A. Finnegan writes that the Library of Congress has started to post some of its images on Flickr, including the collections the 1930s-40s in Color and News in the 1910s.
This is a pretty cool step for the Library of Congress, I think, in making their archives more accessible and in getting a free way to archive their work. I’m not sure how intellectual property rights work for these images, though; but I’m not sure if the LOC knows either because most of their images have this statement: “Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.”
I’m also amazed with the color images: they are gorgeous, and I didn’t know there was color photography in the 1930s. Some images really struck me, such as:
Delano, Jack, 1914-, photographer, Connecticut town on the sea, probably Stonington, 1940 Nov. Available here.
Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910-, photographer, Abandoned shacks, vicinity of Beaufort, S.C., 1939 June. Available here.
Lee, Russell, 1903-, photographer, Jack Whinery and Jim Norris, homesteaders, looking at roots of stalk of corn, Pie Town, New Mexico, 1940 Oct. Available here.
And this one, which I cropped last night and switched my banner over to. I think it’s gorgeous, and it reminds me of the pictures of our farm (taken from an airplane) that we had hanging in my house when I was a kid:
Delano, Jack (possibly), 1914-, photographer, Mountain farm along Skyline Drive, Va., ca. 1940. Available here.
I’ve been reading about this in my library mags and feeds. It is absolutely wonderful. One of the things I love about digital collections is the increased access to materials. Not just for researchers, but for everybody. Really, this is what I love about libraries.
Hi,
We have a project similar to the LoC pilot project, called “PhotosNormandieâ€, which is alive since one year about:
http://www.flickr.com/people/photosnormandie/
For now, descriptions are in French language and we are trying to improve them. So, we invite comments to get better localisations, better identifications, check and verify information, etc.
A main difference between the two projects is the following: we are using IPTC metadata that are embedded in our hi-res photos, but LoC does not use IPTC and their descriptions and tags are attached to Flickr platform.
With best regards
—
Patrick Peccatte