Today, we are celebrating the first anniversary of the DC Public Library in the Flickr Commons.

In 1944, the DC Public Library purchased photographer E.B. Thompson’s collection of images of Washington, DC. This collection included more than 1,800 lantern slides and glass plate negatives.

Starting in 1946 the DC Public Library contracted with the Library of Congress to create 8×10 black and white prints on mounts from his collection of slides and negatives. The prints are now part of the Washington, DC, Historical Image Collection in the Washingtoniana Division.

The strength of this collection lies “in its images of federal buildings, the Arlington National Cemetery, federal memorials, national parades, historic houses, and street scenes.” DCPL’s collection is very rich in photographs of historic buildings and national monuments. However, there is a notable amount of images of people and street scenes, too.

DCPL held a very exciting “Then and Now” Commons-themed contest. Please be sure to view the winning entry here.

The DC Public Library’s photostream consists of eight sets. Two of these sets represent photographs taken by E.B. Thompson. There is a total of 306 photographs in these two sets.

From the set “All Uploaded E.B. Thompson Photos” is this photograph of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, ca 1925.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

There is a set of second batch of E.B. Thompson photos in which there is a “Canoe Race!”

Canoe Race!

This photograph of the of the Library of Congress (ca. 1900) is from the “Buildings” set.

Library of Congress

Also, from the “Buildings” set is this photograph of the north lawn of the White House, taken ca. 1860.

White House

The “Department of Agriculture” set is comprised of views of the old and new Department of Agriculture buildings. This is the “Exterior view of the old Agriculture building” taken ca. 1900.

Exterior view of the old Agriculture building

There is a set of “Color Images” within DCPL’s photostream. But many other color images appear in other DC Public Library sets, too. Here is a fine photograph entitled “Great Falls,” a view of Great Falls on the Potomac River.

Great Falls

The “Portraits & People” set consists of many fine portrait photographs from the E.B. Thompson Collection. Here is one of them, which is the “Portrait of John Alexander Joyce,” taken ca. 1910. John Alexander Joyce (1842-1915) was enlisted in the Union army at the beginning of the Civil War and received a promotion to the rank of colonel.

Portrait of John Alexander Joyce

One of DCPL’s sets consists of 18 photographs of Arlington National Cemetery. This photograph shows a view of graves in the Civil War section of the cemetery. Unknown soldiers are marked with small cube shaped markers, while known soldiers have standard sized markers. All soldiers in the Civil War section fought for the North.

View of graves in the Civil War section of Arlington National Cemetery

This photograph of the Taft Inauguration is housed in three sets, which are “Color Image,” “Portraits & People,” and “All Uploaded E.B. Thompson Photos.” President William Howard Taft and his wife Helen appear during the inaugural parade on March 4, 1909, during a snow storm.

Taft Inauguration

Tags: anniversary, D.C. Public Library

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.