New e-Book Features Great Photos from the Library
Contact: Audrey Fischer, Library of Congress (202) 707-0022 Contact: Hugh Levin, ArtePublishing
New e-Book Features Great Photographs from the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress holds the world’s greatest collection of photographs. Mathew Brady’s Civil War classics, the portraits of American Indians by Edward S. Curtis and Carol Highsmith’s color views from the turn of the 21st century are just a few examples of the extraordinary photographs selected for inclusion in a new e-book, "Great Photographs from the Library of Congress."
The e-book, which will be available for the iPad, was edited by Aimee Hess of the Library’s Publishing Office. This unique e-book, to be published on Nov. 11 by ArtePublishing in association with the Library of Congress, contains more than 700 extraordinary photographs selected from the holdings of the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. Included are iconic photographs, such as Dorothea Lange’s "Migrant Mother" and the Wright Brothers’ first successful airplane flight, as well as compelling historical images of people and places whose names have been lost or forgotten.
A variety of themes and time periods are highlighted, from a turn-of-the-century color view of bustling activity on Constantinople’s Galata Bridge to a shot of the Hindenburg passenger airship in flames; from classic portraits of those who have changed the world—Abraham Lincoln, Helen Keller and Babe Ruth among them—to illustrations of how world landscapes have changed since the dawn of photography.
Along with the high-quality reproductions of the photographs, this interactive e-book features links to the Library of Congress website, where readers can access complete catalog information and download high-resolution copies of the photographs for personal use.
Introductory texts provide a wealth of information about the breadth and depth of the Library’s visual collections, as well as guidelines for navigating the Prints and Photographs Division’s online archive of more than 1 million images. The photographs selected for inclusion in the e-book are arranged in eight chapters: The World and Its Cultures; American Indians; African Americans; Images of America; Accidents and Disasters; Architecture, Design, and Engineering; War; and Famous People. Each chapter’s text highlights the significance of the images within the context of the history of photography and provides information about the particular collections in which they are archived.
Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, publications, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.
The Prints and Photographs Division holds more than 14 million photographs, drawings and prints from the 15th century to the present day. International in scope, these visual collections represent a uniquely rich array of human experience, knowledge, creativity and achievement, touching on almost every realm of endeavor: science, art, invention, government, political struggle and the recording of history. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/rr/print/.
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PR 13-191 10/30/13 ISSN 0731-3527
