Modern Halloween is a holiday full of fake chills--plastic vampire teeth, puny fog machines, and pumpkins carved to look like Simpsons characters. You grandparents, on the other hand, knew how be really scary. Enjoy.
Showing posts with label photographs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photographs. Show all posts
John C.H. Grabill's Photos of Western Frontier Life
Enjoy these amazing photographs!
Between 1887 and 1892, John C.H. Grabill sent 188 photographs to the Library of Congress for copyright protection. Grabill is known as a western photographer, documenting many aspects of frontier life — hunting, mining, western town landscapes and white settlers’ relationships with Native Americans. Most of his work is centered on Deadwood in the late 1880s and 1890s. He is most often cited for his photographs in the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
For the complete collection with richer descriptions and metadata (and downloadable!) see the John C. H. Grabill Collection at Opening History.
Between 1887 and 1892, John C.H. Grabill sent 188 photographs to the Library of Congress for copyright protection. Grabill is known as a western photographer, documenting many aspects of frontier life — hunting, mining, western town landscapes and white settlers’ relationships with Native Americans. Most of his work is centered on Deadwood in the late 1880s and 1890s. He is most often cited for his photographs in the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Panorama Photographs at the UW Digital Collections (also, I hate Content DM)
The University of Washington Libraries Special Collections just released the Panorama Photographs Collection:
This database showcases over 90 panoramic photographs from the Special Collections Visual Materials Collection. Displayed with the ability to zoom into the smallest details of the photograph, this digital collection features such exemplary images such as Front St. in Dawson City around the time of the Klondike Gold Rush, sweeping city views of Seattle after the turn of the century and the memorable Mississippi flood of 1927.
Though it is a smallish collection at 90 images, it is worth highlighting for the unique quality of the photographs and for some of the special features of the exhibit. The collection includes an essay on the history of panoramic photography that explains not only how the pictures were taken (some special cameras produced images as long as 20 feet!) but also the categories of panoramic photos and the types of distortion that could be produced. There is also a link to a Library of Congress page about shooting a panoramic photograph with antique equipment.
The images themselves are fun to explore, despite the Content DM software used to present them. I liked the Bird's-eye view of Seward, Alaska, this hand-colored image of the Seattle waterfront, and the picture of Tallulah, Louisiana in the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. There is a wonderful level of detail in many of these century-old images. Take for example this photograph, of a crowd gathered in Auburn in 1919 for a ceremony to dedicate a monument commemorating some soldiers killed in 1855 while fighting Indians:
There are so many things to focus on here--the clothing of the spectators, the inscription on the monument ("In memory of Lieutenant Wm. A. Slaughter, Corporals Barry and Clarendon who were killed by Indians 125 feet east of this, December 4, 1855"), the gaggle of children out front, and the stoic old pioneers (including professional pioneer Ezra Meeker) posing so seriously next to the stone:
Also admirable is the quality of the metadata that the University of Washington has provided with each image. Under the "Historical Notes" heading is the following:
Engraved on memorial: In memory of Lieutenant Wm. A. Slaughter, Corporals Barry and Clarendon who were killed by Indians 125 feet east of this, December 4, 1855. A crowd of 200 attended the dedication of the monument erected by the Washington State Historical Society at the site north of Auburn, Washington. W.L. Blackwell, president of the Historical Society presided over the event. Rev. C. L. Andrews read a paper on William Slaughter and Frank Cole of Tacoma gave a talk on the history of monuments. Acting Governor Louis F. Hart accepted the monument on behalf of the state and L.C. Smith, County Commissioner accepted it on behalf of King County. Ezra Meeker gave some reminiscences of those days and told of his personal acquaintance with Lt. Slaughter.
The original name of the town of Auburn was Slaughter, in honor of Lieut. William A. Slaughter, who was killed by Indians nearby on December 4, 1855. In 1893, local objection to this name caused the state legislature to substitute the present one. It was named for Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain, from Oliver Goldsmith's poem, The Deserted Village. (Meany, p. 19).
Few archives have the resources to do this level of research on individual images, but for such a significant photograph it is worthwhile.
As wonderful as the photographs are, Content DM remains an abomination. To get a stable URL for the images you have to launch a separate pop-up window. Though you can pan and zoom each photo the navigation is clunky and jerky and it is hard to center your zoom just where you want. Much worse you cannot save the pictures to your hard drive. When you attempt to do so you get some sort of executable file that does not open in standard photo editing software. I had to use screen captures to get the images in this post. These are public records and should be freely available.
Aside from the software, the Panorama Photo collection is a model of digitization best practice as well as a great historical resource.
This database showcases over 90 panoramic photographs from the Special Collections Visual Materials Collection. Displayed with the ability to zoom into the smallest details of the photograph, this digital collection features such exemplary images such as Front St. in Dawson City around the time of the Klondike Gold Rush, sweeping city views of Seattle after the turn of the century and the memorable Mississippi flood of 1927.Though it is a smallish collection at 90 images, it is worth highlighting for the unique quality of the photographs and for some of the special features of the exhibit. The collection includes an essay on the history of panoramic photography that explains not only how the pictures were taken (some special cameras produced images as long as 20 feet!) but also the categories of panoramic photos and the types of distortion that could be produced. There is also a link to a Library of Congress page about shooting a panoramic photograph with antique equipment.
The images themselves are fun to explore, despite the Content DM software used to present them. I liked the Bird's-eye view of Seward, Alaska, this hand-colored image of the Seattle waterfront, and the picture of Tallulah, Louisiana in the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. There is a wonderful level of detail in many of these century-old images. Take for example this photograph, of a crowd gathered in Auburn in 1919 for a ceremony to dedicate a monument commemorating some soldiers killed in 1855 while fighting Indians:
There are so many things to focus on here--the clothing of the spectators, the inscription on the monument ("In memory of Lieutenant Wm. A. Slaughter, Corporals Barry and Clarendon who were killed by Indians 125 feet east of this, December 4, 1855"), the gaggle of children out front, and the stoic old pioneers (including professional pioneer Ezra Meeker) posing so seriously next to the stone:
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| This is not the ZZ Top reunion |
Engraved on memorial: In memory of Lieutenant Wm. A. Slaughter, Corporals Barry and Clarendon who were killed by Indians 125 feet east of this, December 4, 1855. A crowd of 200 attended the dedication of the monument erected by the Washington State Historical Society at the site north of Auburn, Washington. W.L. Blackwell, president of the Historical Society presided over the event. Rev. C. L. Andrews read a paper on William Slaughter and Frank Cole of Tacoma gave a talk on the history of monuments. Acting Governor Louis F. Hart accepted the monument on behalf of the state and L.C. Smith, County Commissioner accepted it on behalf of King County. Ezra Meeker gave some reminiscences of those days and told of his personal acquaintance with Lt. Slaughter.
The original name of the town of Auburn was Slaughter, in honor of Lieut. William A. Slaughter, who was killed by Indians nearby on December 4, 1855. In 1893, local objection to this name caused the state legislature to substitute the present one. It was named for Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain, from Oliver Goldsmith's poem, The Deserted Village. (Meany, p. 19).
Few archives have the resources to do this level of research on individual images, but for such a significant photograph it is worthwhile.
As wonderful as the photographs are, Content DM remains an abomination. To get a stable URL for the images you have to launch a separate pop-up window. Though you can pan and zoom each photo the navigation is clunky and jerky and it is hard to center your zoom just where you want. Much worse you cannot save the pictures to your hard drive. When you attempt to do so you get some sort of executable file that does not open in standard photo editing software. I had to use screen captures to get the images in this post. These are public records and should be freely available.
Aside from the software, the Panorama Photo collection is a model of digitization best practice as well as a great historical resource.
Then and Now: at the Spokesman-Review
I like this as a variation on the before-and-after rephotography theme--a slide show drawn from the archives of the Spokesman Review and modern photos of the same scene:
The video page at the Spokesman has additional historic videos, including one featuring historic neighborhoods.
The video page at the Spokesman has additional historic videos, including one featuring historic neighborhoods.
Northwest Indians in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Historical Society has a new online exhibit, Photographs of Native Americans:
What are photographs of Native Americans from the central and western parts of the United States doing in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society? The portraits in this web presentation were collected by four Bostonians during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Charles W. Jenks and Francis Parkman collected carte de visite and tintype portraits of American Indians during the 1860s as historical records of tribal groups and their role in contemporary American politics.
Those Bostonians--don't turn your back on them and count the silver when they leave! My favorite part of the exhibit is Photographs from the Wanamaker Expeditions, 1908-1913. The photographer of the Wanamaker Expedition was Joseph Kossuth Dixon, who might most kindly be described as imitative of Edward Curtis. Among Dixon's photographic stunts were putting on an all-Indian stage production of Hiawatha and bribing a number of chiefs to come to an "old-time Indian council" his boss hosted at the Crow Agency. Dixon's photographs (like those of Curtis) tell us a lot about white attitudes towards Indians at the turn of the last century, but almost nothing about the Indians themselves.
[Photo: "The Sunset of a Dying Race"
What are photographs of Native Americans from the central and western parts of the United States doing in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society? The portraits in this web presentation were collected by four Bostonians during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Charles W. Jenks and Francis Parkman collected carte de visite and tintype portraits of American Indians during the 1860s as historical records of tribal groups and their role in contemporary American politics. Those Bostonians--don't turn your back on them and count the silver when they leave! My favorite part of the exhibit is Photographs from the Wanamaker Expeditions, 1908-1913. The photographer of the Wanamaker Expedition was Joseph Kossuth Dixon, who might most kindly be described as imitative of Edward Curtis. Among Dixon's photographic stunts were putting on an all-Indian stage production of Hiawatha and bribing a number of chiefs to come to an "old-time Indian council" his boss hosted at the Crow Agency. Dixon's photographs (like those of Curtis) tell us a lot about white attitudes towards Indians at the turn of the last century, but almost nothing about the Indians themselves.
[Photo: "The Sunset of a Dying Race"
Free Historic Pictures for Teachers
NEH Announces Second Picturing America Application Period: "The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced today that a second round of applications for Picturing America will be accepted online through October 31, 2008. Picturing America is a free educational resource that helps teach American history and culture by bringing some of our nation’s greatest works of art directly to classrooms and libraries. In June, the NEH awarded Picturing America to over 26,000 schools and public libraries nationwide."
You can learn more about Picturing America and view some of the pictures and teaching materials at their website. The images are both historically important and visually arresting, as with George Caleb Bingham's painting of antebellum electioneering above. And the website includes a wealth of teaching materials for each. These would be a fantastic addition to any history teacher's classroom.
It is not clear how the NEH is going to sort a few tens of thousands of applications, but if I were them it would be first-come-first-serve. Get cracking!
Online Historical Images Roundup from the ACRL
The newsletter of the Association of College and Research Libraries this month offers a terrific roundup of websites with deep collections of historical primary source images online. Relevant to PNW history are the Alaska Digital Archives, the University of Washington Digital Collections, and Calisphere ("a free online collection of more than 150,000 digitized primary materials contributed by libraries, archives, and museums from all over California"). It is from Calisphere we get the image below, "Bridge over Spokane River, downtown Spokane, Washington" [undated].
More on "Digital Images at the Beinicke"
Howling Wolf, Sketchbook, Bison Hunt
Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinicke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
"Cheyenne warrior and son of Cheyenne chief Eagle Head. He was imprisoned from 1875 to 1878 at Fort Marion, Saint Augustine, Florida, with other 'hostile' Prairie Indians. Their jailer, Captain Richard H. Pratt, encouraged the artistic talent of the Indians."
The metadata also includes "Subject" -- useful for more searches -- "Genre/Form" and, in this case, a link under "Multi-Image set" allowing you to choose to "See all Images in this set." This brings you to 20 sketches by Howling Wolf.
One of the marvels of the web is the way that it can help us find connections between so much data of so many kinds. After reading the note above about Howling Wolf's "jailer," Richard H. Pratt, I immediately liked the man. Here is someone who respected the Indians so much that he encouraged them to express themselves and their lives in art. I wondered how long he could have lasted in those days as a culturally sensitive benefactor to the Indians. A quick Google search, suggests that his story is much more complex, for Pratt, it turns out, is responsible for one of the most notoriously ethnocentic statements ever uttered about educating Native Americans: "kill the Indian, save the man." Building on his success at Fort Marion he became a leader in Indian education and persuaded some of his Indian pupils, once free, to recruit young Indians to attend the Carlisle Indian School, which he founded.
There is much more to this story, of course. For the moment the point is simply to illustrate the power of the Beinicke digital images, backed up with excellent metadata, to drive historical inquiry.
Thanks for the "heads up," Larry.
Digital Images Online at the Beinecke Library
Beinecke's Digital Images Online offers approximately 70,000 images of a wide range of materials from throughout the Beinecke Collections: photographs, manuscripts, correspondence, artwork, objects, illustrations, and selected pages from printed works . . . Approximately 1200 images are added every two weeks. About 20,000 images are scanned images from the Beinecke's Photonegative File, which contains negatives and color transparences of images selected for reproduction or study by patrons over the last twenty years.
The site is well-designed, with a powerful search engine and the ability to display results as a gallery or slideshow. You can link directly to the images and once you find something you can see all the images in a given set. Yale patrons can create an account and save items, but the rest of us can use the direct link and a service such as Del.icio.us to do the same thing.
The above image of Spokane Falls in 1879 is from the delightfully titled Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Glimpses of Pretty Spots Along the Valley of the Columbia River (1879) by Isaac Grundy Davidson. Here are the other images in the volume. Though the collection is at Yale the Northwest and West is surprisingly well represented--try searches for Seattle, bison, or salmon for some delightful images.
Don Bain's Virtual Guidebooks
Here is a fun one! Don Bain's Virtual Guidebooks: "This site features over 5000 of my VR panoramas. These amazing photographs show you exactly what it is like to be in a particular spot - you can look in any direction, all the way around. It's the next best thing to being there." You can navigate within each 360 view and even zoom with some intuitive controls.
This is a great way to get a feel for places across the American west. These VR panoramas could be useful to the historian seeking that elusive sense of place, or to anyone planning a trip, or for a home sick north westerner stuck in Missouri (as a random example). For a quick tour of the northwest check out Fog in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Diablo Lake Overlook, Silver Falls State Park, and Wheatlands Near Almota, Washington. Or make your own tour--you have 5000 destinations from which to choose.
(You know what would make these really cool? If they were embedded in Google Earth!)
This is a great way to get a feel for places across the American west. These VR panoramas could be useful to the historian seeking that elusive sense of place, or to anyone planning a trip, or for a home sick north westerner stuck in Missouri (as a random example). For a quick tour of the northwest check out Fog in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Diablo Lake Overlook, Silver Falls State Park, and Wheatlands Near Almota, Washington. Or make your own tour--you have 5000 destinations from which to choose.(You know what would make these really cool? If they were embedded in Google Earth!)
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