Posts tagged with: Photo History
Link Love: 5/11/2012
- Smithsonian Magazine writes about how newfound negatives provide what are believed to be the only pictures of a living nestling of an ivory-billed woodpecker—America’s rarest bird.
- A digital archivist’s horror story. How the movie Toy Story 2 was accidentally deleted (and then restored). Moral of the story? Back up those files! [via Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig, SIA]
- A little late for May Day, but getting me in the Spring spirit nevertheless: maypoles across the Flickr Commons [via Susannah Wells, SIA].
- John Gray, former president of the Autry National Center of the American West, has been named director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
- “The Hemingway Papers” Digital Archive is now available, and features newspaper articles written by the famous author during his tenure as a columnist at the Toronto Star newspaper from 1920–1924 on subjects like fishing, sports and war [via INFOdocket].
- The National Portrait Gallery on the tricky science of conserving some Civil War era prints in their collections.
- Why do old books smell? [via swissmiss]
Un-Locke the Mystery
In the January blog post “Ruel P. Tolman’s Images: Who Are You?,” Courtney Esposito invited you to identify any familiar faces found in the new Ruel Pardee Tolman set on the Flickr Commons.
Thanks to several champion contributors in the Flickr community, we have been able to uncover more about the individuals pictured, as well as update our official catalog records!
With the hard work and dedication from Flickr users pennylrichardsca, Pixel Wrangler, and Jody Roberts, we have further identified eight subjects of the featured Tolman images. While reeling from this great success, there are still several images that have yet to be explored or identified.
A particularly baffling image is that of Capt. Locke.
This curious character has potentially been identified three times. Needless to say, the jury’s still out on this one. Initially, he was thought to have been Walston Levi Locke, featured in the YouTube video below. However, Mr. Locke’s nephew, Wilderness Vann, got in touch with us to express the possibility that the photo’s subject may not be his uncle. So the mystery continues.
"This is a small portion of a session spent with Walston Levi Locke in the fall of 1984, at his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. His wife, Micky, and grand nephew, Vann Helms, are seated with him at the table. He was 88 years old in this video, and would live another nine years." Courtesy of Miamiart7.
A virtual pool has developed between Flickr users severinus and Jody Roberts on whether the man in the above video is “E.P. Locke Jr. who in 1934 ‘handled White House projects for the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds of the National Park Service,’” according to severinus, or “Edwin Allen Locke, Jr (1910-1999) . . . involved with the Truman Administration,” as suggested by Jody. Or, I wonder . . . (cue eerie music) could they in fact be the same man? Dun dun dun!
Although I could rattle-off eleven more clever theories, this puzzle is yours. I quite enjoy reading your comments too much to intervene. Look forward to more serious sleuthing on the Flickr Commons!
Link Love: 3/2/2012
- The Flickr Commons group always has interesting conversations about the photographic gems from various institutions on the Commons. We just added a recent discovery to this thread on “personal connections” made with photos on the Commons—we were contacted by the future child of the little boy above.
- If you haven’t heard yet, you likely will soon: the New York Times has a new photo blog, Lively Morgue, featuring photographs from their archives.
- The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has launched a new blog in anticipation of the Space Shuttle Discovery’s acquisition and arrival.
- A beautiful interface: Old Maps Online—as the name suggests, an easy-to-use resource allowing the user to browse many beautiful and detailed historic maps by typing a place-name or by clicking in a map window [via Digital Humanities Now].
- We were reminded that our friends at the Society of American Archivists have a plethora of useful resources, including this guide on using archives for effective research.
- The difficulties of preserving footage of protests, and a project that aims to teach protestors to protect and preserve the videos that they shoot [via @DavidRowntree]:
Link Love: 2/24/2012
- Do you follow Historypin's Pinner of the Week on Facebook? I always love seeing these new collections--this week's belongs to SueWalkerWhite for her amazing collection of early 1900s photographs.
- Could it be you? The Smithsonian's Field Book Project is looking for an intern.
- Exciting news: not only did Obama speak at this week's groundbreaking of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, but the museum also has a new website!
- Hmm, I never knew!: the origins of the name of the Chandra X-ray Center, which is operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
- So incredibly beautiful and cool: fish, inside and out (really!), from the National Museum of Natural History’s division of fishes.
- Fascinating finds: Michael Pahn, a musician and an archivist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, talks about the universal quality of music, and some of his favorite music-related collections at the Smithsonian, including the video below:
Link Love: 2/17/2012
- Envelopes from famous people.
- Has it already been four years? Happy (belated) anniversary to the Flickr Commons (which as you probably know, we’re big fans of…).
- “Dear photograph . . .” A really wonderful photo site [via Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig, SIA].
- Have you heard of the Adopt-a-Museum Project? Champion your own favorite “unsung hero” of the museum world on their site, which will be added to the project’s map. (And feel free to add your favorite “gem” of a museum in the comments below.)
- Text-heavy, but interesting. A report on how technology is changing the research and digitization needs of historians [via @dancohen].
- A fun way to while away an afternoon. A new archive of vintage American ads: the Jay Paull Vintage Print Advertisements collection [via Jennifer Wright, SIA].
- This week marked what would have been Thomas Edison’s 165th birthday. Learn a bit more about this fascinating man in the video below [via Neatorama]:
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