Flickr Commons Photofinds for Valentines Day

CWAC Valentine's Day, 1944

Galt Museum and Archives

As avid readers of our venerable blog will remember, last semester we posted weekly gems from the Library of Congress' Flickr collection. The LoC collection is notable not only for its hidden treasures, it is also remarkable in that it was integral to the development of the Flickr "Commons," a copyright free, social tagging experiment that has vastly expanded in the last few years. (More on the Flickr/LoC partnership here, for all you open-access, social-tagging enthusiasts.)

From now on, our photo finds will be drawn not only from the LoC collection, but the larger Commons. Participants in the Commons range from the Brooklyn Museum and the National Maritime Museum to the Bergen Public Library and NASA, so the photo collection is exceptionally diverse. It's a great resource, so check it out sometime and send us your favorite finds to post.

For now, though, some Valentine's Day inspired photos (all of these came up in a keyword search for "valentine"):

McCall Style and Beauty (1939)
Part of the George Eastman House Collection

Meisje met jonge leeuwen in Artis (1961)
From the Nationaal Archief Collection


Valentine Dance, School (1956)
Library of Virginia

Library of Congress Photo Finds of the Week: Famous Faces

A few images of famous personalities:

Billie Holiday, 1947
(William Gottlieb)


President Theodore Roosevelt with Reporters, 1912
(Bain News Service)

Actress Doris Day, 1946
(William Gottlieb)


Babe Ruth, Knocked Out by Pitch, 1924

Library of Congress Photo Finds of the Week: December

As we near the end of 2010, here are some photos that were found in the LoC Flickr page in a keyword search for 'December.'


These first three are by photographer Jack Delano:

Skating, vicinity of Brockton, MA: December, 1940



Street in Christiansted, St. Croix? Virgin Islands: December, 1941

C & NW RR, working on a locomotive at the 40th Street railroad shops, Chicago:
December, 1942

The last photo was taken by the Bains News Service:

Winter Bathing, New York: December, 1912

Library of Congress Photo Finds of the Week: Thanksgiving Maskers

Our Thanksgiving-themed weekly photo finds are all part of the LoC's George Grantham Bain Collection and feature "Thanksgiving Maskers." According to this article, Masking was a popular Thanksgiving tradition in the early 1900s. Per the article,

Before Halloween became the holiday it now is in the United States, children would dress up in masks on the final Thursday in November and go door to door for treats (think: fruit!), or scramble for pennies. The tradition was known as Thanksgiving Masking.

Below are some shots of a Thanksgiving Masking celebrationaround 1910:

Thanksgiving Maskers, ca. 1910

Scramble for Pennies, Thanksgiving, ca. 1910

Thanksgiving Maskers, ca. 1910

Library of Congress Photo Finds of the Week

Your Draper staff is quite enamored with the Library of Congress' digital historic photo collection on Flickr. We'll be posting great finds from their collections weekly. We hope you enjoy--let us know if you find any particularly interesting gems that you'd like to have posted here as well.

Selections from "Photochrom Travel Views" Collection

Stabur Bygdo, Christiania, Norway, Photochrom ca. 1890

Fantoft Church, Bergen, Norway, Photochrom ca. 1890

General view, Copenhagen, Denmark, Photochrom, ca. 1890