One year ago today, after an enormous amount of behind-the-scenes work, staff at Flickr and the Library of Congress held their collective breath while the first 3,150 digitalized photographs from two important archive collections were made publicly available for the first time in The Commons — the newest addition to the repertoire of the well-established online photosharing site. Users of the site were invited to visit the collections, view the images and, if they felt so inclined, leave comments or even tag those images with what they thought might be relevant information. Would the community respond to these images, or would they languish unseen on the Internet equivalent of a dusty shelf? They responded: Within two days, the collections had received 650,000 page views, with every image viewed at least once. Flickr members had commented on 420 images, and “faved” 1,200. In all, this activity amounted to a total of about 1.1 million views on the Library of Congress Flickr account.
So what had everyone been looking at on that first day of The Commons?
News in the 1910s
This first set (now of 1,500 images) is taken from the George Grantham Bain Collection of almost 40,000 glass negatives created by the Bain News Service. Most of these photographs arrived with little in the way of explanation or description, but provide a fascinating insight into the sporting, theatrical, criminal, celebrity and political world of New York.
Library of congress
As this is a post to celebrate the first day that archive photographs were made public within the auspices of The Commons, it seems appropriate to share this charming photograph from that collection. Documenting the 7th Annual Excursion Day of Brooklyn Orphans, it was in fact the first upload to the Library of Congress Flickr account. This excursion, according to the New York Times, was sponsored by volunteer drivers on behalf of the Automobile Club. An appropriate image then, to celebrate an act of sharing undertaken almost a hundred years later.
1930s & 40s in Color
The other set launched that first day one year ago (now containing 1,615 images) belongs to a collection of color transparencies created by photographers working for the US Farm Security Administration and later the Office of War Information (FSA/OWI 1939-1944).
Library of Congress
Most imagery at this time was still commonly viewed in black and white, rather than in the rich and vibrant tones we can now enjoy. This is what makes these photographs so special. Here, images of men and women taking part in the collective World War II mobilization effort sit alongside the important work undertaken by FSA photographers in the rural areas of the US.
Within months of uploading this richness of material, the Library of Congress’s Flickr account had recorded 10.4 million views and been made a “contact” by 15,000 people, and the library had enhanced 500 Prints & Photographs Online Catalog records with the valuable data provided by the Flickr community through its 7,166 comments and 67,176 descriptive tags — data that will now be passed down to future generations as part of their photographic heritage.
If you haven’t had the chance to explore these first collections yet — or the rest of the LOC’s 5,249 Commons photos — then perhaps it’s time to make your contribution, whether in information or, most importantly, in pleasure.
