This week, we present new sets of images from the institution’s collections. Just uploaded this past week, these photographs are waiting to be explored, savored and commented upon.

Phillips Glass Plate Negatives Collection – Powerhouse Museum These negatives are from a collection of glass plate negatives which was acquired by the museum in the 1980s and appears to have been made by a Sydney-based photographic studio from around 1890 through to 1920.

Phillips Glass Plate Negatives

On the high seas – National Maritime Museum George Oates curated this collection of images, which includes images from Villiers’ voyages on the Herzogin Cecilie, the Grace Harwar and the Parma, as well as on Arab dhows.

On the high seas

Retouche en fotomontages – Nationaal Archief Retouched images and photo montages. Featuring actress Dorothy Jordan, a human-powered airplane, and a double-deckered bus race.

Retouche en fotomontages

Cars & bikes – National Library of New Zealand A collection of car and motorcycle images from Samuel Heath Head, of whom little is known. Please contribute your knowledge to this set.

Cars & bikes

Pets and other animals – State Library of New South Wales Pets, working animals, stock and zoo animals, and kittens kittens kittens galore!

Pets and other animals

Publicidade – Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Features photographic-type advertising for products, businesses, shops, produced by Studio Mário Novais.

Publicidade

Ponts et aqueducs – Bibliothèque de Toulouse Bridges and aqueducts in photographs taken in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Ponts et aqueducs

Inauguration – Smithsonian Institution Presidential inaugurals have a cherished history at the Smithsonian. Features inaugural ball gowns, top hats and tails, and swearing-in ceremonies.

Inauguration

National Galleries of Scotland All sets are new, as they just joined the Commons last week. Everything from Balmoral to the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

National Galleries of Scotland

News in the 1910s – Library of Congress The LOC continually adds to this set, now updated with portraits of kings, kaisers and a lady pitching out the first baseball at the opening of Ebbets Field.

News in the 1910s

Awareness of the object is easily lost in the transition from archive to web.

On Flickr, the digital image is most prominent, and yet there is still a longing for the physical photograph. This can be seen primarily in thriving communities of film photographers, but it is visible in other ways as well. Web services and image editing software allow the digital photographer to select frames for their images, wrapping their images in the guise of a Polaroid snap or a picture frame with a white matte. These effects yearn for the real but achieve only a kind of false physicality, with little effort.

Flickr Commons institutions present their archival photos in way that retains a sense of an actual object with real physicality, maintained by diligent effort — sometimes for longer than a century. These institutions carefully scan and crop each image in ways that retain edge and surface detail, subtly informing us of each object’s history.

Walter Benjamin writes of the “aura” of authentic objects his 1935 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction“:

… that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art. This is a symptomatic process whose significance points beyond the realm of art. One might generalize by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. And in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced.

In the case of The Commons, this idea has some interesting implications. The object the reproduction “reactivates” is both a reproduction and an authentic historical artifact. By including detail around the edges of the object, institutions expose this dual nature while retaining some of vestige of the aura of the original. This is ironic, since Benjamin also writes:

From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the “authentic” print makes no sense.

Thus, institutions possess “inauthentic” reproductions rendered “authentic” by virtue of their perseverance as objects. Because these objects are then reproduced in a way that allows every rough edge, tear, crinkle and fingerprint to point to this accrued authenticity, The Commons is filled with borders that are almost as fascinating as the images they contain.

The Smithsonian Institution has a long tradition with inaugural events, with its museums serving as the sites for many of the inaugural balls, festivities and exhibitions. This year, the Smithsonian Photography Initiative wants your contributions to click! photography changes everything: History in the Making.. You may submit your photographs and stories of the recent US election and inauguration that explore how photography influences our understanding of the world. It’s exciting to that the Smithsonian is on the forefront of encouraging a populist inclusion of modern times in their storied archives. Please, if you have any images and stories, take a trip to their website and submit them!

One of the activities we hold in our Flickr group, Flickr Commons, is a Tag/Research/Explore (TRE) campaign, where we focus on a subcurated collection and ask our members to add descriptive tags to the images, as well as notes and independent research. We also encourage members to present their findings in the group. This weekend, we started a TRE campaign for the Smithsonian’s Inauguration set, which we invited into our group’s photo pool for our member’s ease of access.

On this photo of President Clinton’s inauguration, an astute visitor noted that the photo, listed as taken in 1993, was actually taken in 1997, discovered by cross-referencing images on an archived version of the Clinton presidency’s website.

Smithsonian Institution

People have also uncovered some trivia. Did you know that Jackie Kennedy designed her own inauguration gown?

Smithsonian Institution

Join us in the campaign to add your valuable insights to these treasures!

Bain News Service
Pres’t. Wilson’s Inaugural address, March 4, 1913
Library of Congress: LC-B2- 2504-7

“THERE has been a change of government. It began two years ago, when the House of Representatives became Democratic by a decisive majority. It has now been completed. The Senate about to assemble will also be Democratic. The offices of President and Vice-President have been put into the hands of Democrats. What does the change mean? That is the question that is uppermost in our minds to-day.”

— President Woodrow Wilson, Inauguration Speech, 1913

view + comment on Flickr

Indicommons.org isn’t just about about blogging about Flickr Commons–related news, showcasing Commons-related research and community-generated “subcuration”. We’re also active in creating new tools to follow, search and sort the Commons collections.

Our Chief of Development, David Wilkinson, recently responded to a request from the Brooklyn Museum to improve their Flickr upload workflow. Commons institutions like the Brooklyn Museum tend to upload sets of images to Flickr as “private”, add initial metadata and then eventually switch the photos in the set to “public” in order to expose them to the Flickr community. A problem with this method is that during this switch the photo upload dates remain in the past and the photos do not appear in many of Flickr’s recent uploads feeds.

To address this issue, David created a web application that uses Flickr’s API in order to update the upload dates of every photo in a set. This allows institution staff to update upload dates as they switch a set of photos from private to public, allowing the photos to appear freshly uploaded. The Batch Date Changer allows Commons photos receive maximum exposure while lightening the burden on institution staff.

This application is currently being used by the Brooklyn Museum and will soon be made available to all Flickr Commons institutions.

I’m a bit too excited about Tuesday to make smart remarks. Here’s a look through time of American Presidential Inauguration photos in The Commons — mostly from The Smithsonian! All of these images — including recent ones — are available with “no known copyright restrictions“.

We begin eight years after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He’ll be the arc to our story.

1873 The gown worn by Julia Dent Grant (First Lady to Ulysses S. Grant). Grant was a General under Lincoln during the American Civil War.

Smithsonian Institution

1881 The Arts and Industries building is ready for James Garfield’s bash. Within the year, Garfield would be assassinated, as was Lincoln.

Smithsonian Institution

(more…)

Indicommons staff member and development maestro clickykbd has constructed a Yahoo! Pipe that lets people follow Flickr Commons uploads in ways that weren’t possible before. These are truly useful, visually stunning,and flexible feeds.

clickykbd

Flickr Commons Feed

Follow all Commons photos as they are uploaded. This wasn’t previously possible without subscribing to each Commons institution individually.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/FlickrCommonsFeed

Flickr Commons Geo-Feed

Follow all geotagged Commons photos as they are uploaded, with short text descriptions.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/FlickrCommonsFeedGeoShort

This feed looks incredible on a Google Map!

Flickr Commons Tag-Feed

To configure the pipe to do something custom, go to the pipe URL:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/clickykbd/flickrcommonsfeeds

From there you can add additional variables to narrow down the results the feed will provide. For example, try adding “portrait” to the “optional: tags” field, then running the pipe. You’ll see a slideshow of all photos in The Commons tagged “portrait”, and be presented with options to subscribe to the feed.

The Commons feed, tag search “portrait”

This approach can work with any tag, or even with text in descriptions or comments by filling the “optional: text” field instead. You can also increase the number of results in the feed by changing the number after “required: truncate”. Curious what all the other arguments do? Read clickykbd’s documentation on Flickr.

Upon hearing that the National Galleries of Scotland have joined the Flickr Commons project, one word immediately springs to mind.

Kilts!

There may be a better tribute to the country that brought the world the gift of the Scottish Enlightenment, bedrock of the best aspects of modernity, than a collection of kilts. However, running a Commons search for “kilt” had revealed only two kilt-related images from all of the existing Commons institutions.

This first result, from the Imperial War Museum, has stood alone in satisfying the requirement for archetypal kilt imagery in the Commons collection since it was first uploaded in November of last year. Unfortunately, it also includes two individuals who not only are kiltless, but obscure the kilt by standing in front of it!

Imperial War Museum

The second result, from the New York Public Library, shows no fewer than three kilt-clad Scottish boys. It is likely that these boys were recent immigrants, asked to dress in holiday finery by photographer Augustus Sherman, the Ellis Island Chief Registry Clerk. While the photo contains many kilts, prominently displayed, the circumstances and human interest of the photograph largely overwhelms a sense of undiluted “kilty-ness”

New York Public Library

While a search for Plaid provided 14 results, showing the full extent of the Scottish tartan’s cultural influence, clearly a large infusion of Kilt was needed in The Commons collection. This is where the National Galleries of Scotland came in, adding an additional 6 kilt-related photos in their first batch of uploads, quadrupling the Commons kilt collection overnight.

The new wealth of results includes this incredible image of John Sobieski Stolberg-Stuart. An Englishman from Wales originally named John Carter Allen, he moved to Scotland with his brother and adopted the alias “John Sobieski Stuart”. Claiming to be the grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the two brothers learned Gaelic, hobnobbed with Scottish nobility, and published the controversial Vestiarium Scoticum — an “inventive” book on the history of Highland dress. Although quickly exposed as inauthentic, many of its designs and patterns passed into the realm of official clan tartans!

National Galleries of Scotland

So not only do the National Galleries of Scotland bring us a wealth of flashy-looking kilts, in the process they bring us the incredible story of a historical charlatan and his influence on the development of the kilt itself.

pennyrichardsca writes in the Library of Congress Faves thread:

“I also love all the photos of suffrage demonstrators and parades, so much that I was inspired by the Commons images to create my own suffragette costume for Halloween 2008.

“(IIRC, the text on the sign was copied directly from a LOC image in the Commons.)”

Library of Congress	pennylrichardsca
THEN	NOW

This “Then and Now” combines a photo of her 2008 Halloween costume with a portrait of a suffragette from 1910.

Library of Congress

In December 2008, the Library of Congress (LOC) released a detailed report written in October by Michelle Springer, Beth Dulabahn, and Phil Michel on the results to date of the Flickr pilot. The verdict? The pilot has resoundingly exceeded expectations as well as silenced early criticism and fears.

To quantify this achievement, consider the following statistics from nine months of data:

• There were 10.4 million views of the photos on Flickr.
• 79% of the 4,615 photos have been made a “favorite” (that is, incorporated into personal Flickr collections of bookmarked images).
• More than 15,000 Flickr members have chosen to make the Library of Congress a “contact,” creating a photostream of Library images viewable from their own Flickr home pages.
• 7,166 comments were left on 2,873 photos by 2,562 unique Flickr account holders.
• 67,176 tags were added by 2,518 unique Flickr account holders.
• 4,548 of the 4,615 photos have at least one community-provided tag.
• Fewer than 25 instances of user-generated content were removed as inappropriate.
• More than 500 Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) records have been enhanced with new information provided by the Flickr community.

The Library’s full report chronicles the development of the pilot, including the challenges to the launch, photo selection and preparation, technical issues, and resources needed for the launch. The report also maps the goals of the pilot to the outcomes so far, such as increasing awareness of cultural heritage and educational resources, gaining a better understanding of social tagging and community input, and leading the way for other institutions to enter social media sharing.

The LOC reaches a new audience from participating in the Flickr Commons. Of the 10 million total views of photos in the LOC’s Flickr photostream by October 2008, 82% came from within Flickr while a mere 3% came from search-engine hits.

Not all results of the pilot were expected. The LOC’s blog reached “significant visibility” thanks to overwhelming coverage and linkbacks by blogs and online media outlets of the pilot’s launch January 16, 2008. But also the major search-engine rankings resulted in high visibility for the LOC’s Flickr images.

The Library attributes the success of the pilot to altruism by Flickr members — people like to help — many acting upon the availability of impressive content “without known copyright restrictions”, satisfying a vast need in the Web 2.0 community to share and remix media.

The pilot not only ignites creative interaction with the LOC’s collection through tagging, commenting and annotating the LOC’s Flickr images, but it helps the LOC staff better understand how folksonomic tagging and community input could benefit the Library and its users. The LOC can become expert in the field of social media sharing on the Internet, allowing them to write the “cookbook” for other public institutions to be successful in baking their own Web 2.0 recipes.

The reports also dispels criticisms raised prior to the pilot’s launch. Critics posited that false memories and ungracious discourse might cloud understanding and research. There were fears of history being “dumbed down” or librarians becoming obsolete. However, public and media reception to the pilot praised the immediate access to these historical treasures as well as the participatory cataloging. Appendix A is filled with many examples of the spontaneous collaboration between members that occur on the LOC’s Flickr photostream, bridging the gap between a static viewing of the historical record and Web 2.0 social networking at its finest.

The report ultimately concludes that the Library’s pilot with Flickr should

cease to be characterized as a pilot and evolve to an expanded involvement in this growing community as resources permit. The benefit far outweighs the costs and risks.

For more information

• LOC blog post on the report: http://www.loc.gov/blog/?p=394
• Full Report: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/flickr_report_final.pdf
• Summary Report: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/flickr_report_final_summary.pdf
• Opening the Photo Vaults, LOC webcast on the pilot project.