Crew members of the SS Strathgarry, posed with the captain's terrier and two cats

We’re delighted to welcome to the Commons the Australian National Maritime Museum — the second maritime museum to join the Commons. The ANMM joins with nearly 2,000 photographs: portraits of crew, passengers, and the occasional ship’s cat — ports and docks and harbours and coastlines — ships and seaplanes and soon-to-be-ex-ships … a rich collection focussing on life at sea around the shores of the island continent of Australia. Please maritime museum to join the Commons. The ANMM joins with nearly 2,000 photographs: portraits of crew, passengers, and the occasional ship’s cat — ports and docks and harbours and coastlines — ships and seaplanes and soon-to-be-ex-ships … a rich collection focussing on life at sea around the shores of the island continent of Australia. Please join us in waving ashore the ANMM!

A year ago today, the National Library of Wales joined Flickr Commons, and they’ve had a fine first year of uploads. And with over 800,000 photographs in their collections, ranging back to the very beginnings of photography itself, we can surely look forward to more wonders from Aberystwyth. But for today, Da iawn a llongyfarchiadau ! (Well done and congratulations!)

Elinor Amy Dillwyn Llewelyn, 1853

Bardd Trefowen, Llanfair (Caereinion?)–obviously a highly-decorated bard

The Orangery, Margam, 1850s

Conwy Castle and Bridge

And the laughing Newtown Ladies’ Bowling Team, 1939

Decorations for Mother's Day at the Fort Street Baptist Church in Maryborough in 1937

… from Indicommons and the State Library of Queensland, Australia. Enjoy more for Mother’s Day from Queensland!

Hugo Steiner-Prag, 1880-1945
“Schemajah Hillel,” page 18 from the book “Der Golem”, 1916
Center for Jewish History, NYC: NC 251 S73 G6

view + comment on Flickr

Hands are, uh, handy subjects–everyone has some nearby, right? And they’re an interesting shape. Some photographs of the hand at work, at play, under study and under a rodent, from the Flickr Commons. (Or come visit the gallery “Hands across the Commons” for fourteen handfuls of the same.)

Olifantsspitsmuis in Artis. Oppasser houdt muisje op de hand (a.k.a., an elephant shrew)

Nationaal Archief

Library Appeal 1973

. LSE Library

Women Bowling

George Eastman House

Moses Williams playing the diddley bow: Waverly, Florida

State Library and Archives of Florida

Untitled (from the 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Native Basketry program)

Smithsonian Institution

Polluted Area on Gulf Coast: Mustang Island, 100 Miles South of Houston.

In 1972, Marc St. Gil photographed the evidence and effects of industrial pollution in Louisiana, as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Documerica project. Several of St. Gil’s Louisiana photographs are available in Flickr’s Commons from the U.S. National Archives, including some that suggest just how new and incomplete our awareness of environmental pollutants was—and some that are achingly familiar today.

Representative Scott Clemons introducing his bill on automobile window tinting in Tallahassee, Florida

Today is World Laughter Day, and the State Library and Archives want you to laugh with Florida. From Little Bub Ahern to the Supreme Court, Florida is laughing … and you will be too!