We celebrate the 1st anniversary of Oregon State University Archives this weekend! OSU still holds the celebrated spot of being the only university participating in The Commons (but there’s more to come in the year ahead). With a little over 270,000 views on all of their photos, they have much to cheer about!

As both part of their Commonsversary celebration and the 2010 Winter Olympics, they’ve uploaded a new set of images, OSU Olympians. Pictured here is OSU athlete Dick Fosbury winning the 1968 Olympic high jump in Mexico City (and setting a record at the time!).

Dick Fosbury

A mainstay of the OSU’s Commons material is from the the Gerald W. Williams Collection, consisting of the collected historical photographs, personal papers, and research library of Gerald “Jerry” Williams, former national historian for the U.S. Forest Service. There is a treasure trove of Pacific Northwest images in this collection; these are an important record of the history of the state of Oregon.

Gerald W. Williams Collection

One of the newest sets in this collection, in time for their 1st birthday on The Commons, contains a wealth of trains and railroad photographs. Workers, logs, trains, bridges – oh my! If you’re near their campus on Monday, Feb. 15, 2010, drop by to see all they have to offer from the Commons, in the lobby of the Valley Library; It’ll be on the big jumbo screen Smartboard for a day-long slideshow!

Railroads & Trains

One of the earliest and most popular sets of photos OSU Archives uploaded to The Commons is that of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a part of the New Deal during the 1930s, the CCC was responsible for building much of the infrastructure of the Pacific Northwest. Enrollees fought fires on the Tillamook Burns, helped build ski areas on Mt Hood, built telephone and electrical wires, and improved farm lands.

Civilian Conservation Corps

More great photos of infrastructure being built is found in the Celilo Falls set. The images of this dam being built on the Columbia River are thrilling.

Celilo Falls

My absolute favorite collection of theirs is Take a Trip: traveling and touring with the Visual Instruction Lantern Slides Collection. There’s so much great material here, from historical and iconic images of great rails like the Shasta and Sunset Routes to images of the The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. Their sets on Oregon industry are a great look back to how we worked and lived in the 20th Century while Early Settlement of Oregon takes you back to centuries prior.

Take a Trip!

And no matter what time of the year you drop into the OSU on the Commons, you’ll find something timely, in their Through the Seasons set. Here’s to another happy winter … spring, summer, and fall!

Through the Seasons

Wedding party

The Library of Virginia isn’t one of the bigger streams in the Commons, but their 400+ photos since joining the Commons on October 6, 2008, have a lot to say. They, with the State Library and Archives of Florida, represent the American South in the Commons. The bulk of Virginia’s collection is from the Adolph B. Rice Studio of Richmond, and documents 1950s Richmond, Virginia: buildings going up and falling down, beauty parlors and department stores, bowling teams and wedding parties — the regular life of regular people.

Who was Adolph B. Rice, anyway?

The Library of Virginia explains:

Born in 1909, Adolph Bransford Rice grew up in the Oregon Hill neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. The son of an elevator inspector, he originally worked as a mechanic for Otis Elevator. In the 1940s Rice briefly owned and operated a small family business known as the Rice Elevator and Engineering Company. He changed careers and became a professional photographer at the age of forty and established the Adolph B. Rice Studio at 14 N. Auburn Avenue….

Founded in 1949, the Adolph B. Rice Studio addressed a wide variety of photographic needs in Richmond, Virginia. It specialized in aerial and commercial photography and worked for nearly every major business and organization in the city during the 1950s. Clients included department stores, real estate developers, food service companies, television and radio broadcast companies, car dealerships, construction firms, and state and city governments. The resulting images document much of the growth and commercial development of the region in the mid-twentieth century.

Join us in wishing the Library of Virginia — and the people of Richmond, VA — a happy Commons anniversary!

Ball game

Lowes of Richmond, woman in bunny suit showing a stove

Bowling team

Le-Wood Homes prefab church

The State Library of New South Wales’ major subject strengths are Australian history, culture and literature, including Aboriginal studies, Antarctic exploration, family history and genealogy, business and management, social sciences, applied science, biography, health and law.

It’s more than fitting to start the celebration with the Library’s very own Happy Birthday set, featuring the amazing photography of Sam Hood.

Happy Birthday

They opened their collection with a series of images of libraries of yore in NSW, to provide ideas and inspiration for New South Wales public library staff who are planning changes to their libraries. These images will help with plans for renovations and rebuilding.

Libraries, galleries and museums

Possibly one of their most recognized Commons images are from the set Bondi Jitterbug: George Caddy and his Camera. This photo was taken by Ted Hood, Sam’s son.

Bondi Jitterbug

These iconic Sam Hood images are of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the world’s largest steel arch bridge.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Library also has an extensive collection of children in their catalog – especially this heartbreaker from the Depression.

Australian children

An absolute must is their historic Antarctic exploration series of images.

First Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914)

And you know, they also have some of the cutest animal photos to be found in the Commons. Got milk?

Pets and other animals

We’ve barely touched the surface of their impressive collection, so hop over and join in the fun by tagging, commenting, and researching their collection! They’ve over 1,000,000 views on their ~500 photos, which is pretty darned impressive, and we look forward to seeing what their second year in the Commons brings them.

Hip Hip Hoorah and Happy Commonsversary to the State Library of New South Wales!

The National Photography Collection held at the Museum is one of the finest and most extensive anywhere in the world. It encompasses many significant groups of material, including the Science Museum’s Photography Collection, The Royal Photographic Society Collection, the holdings of the former Kodak Museum and the picture library of the former Daily Herald newspaper.

Their most popular set on Flickr contains spirit photographs by William Hope. Hope was a medium who founded a group comprised of six spirit photographers known as the “Crewe Circle.”

The spirit photographs of William Hope

When Hope was exposed as a fraudster, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remained a loyal supporter of his.

The spirit photographs of William Hope

Another popular set contains charming circular Kodak snapsnots from the late 1800s. The introduction of the Kodak camera revolutionized photography by virtue of how easy it suddenly became to capture memories.

Kodak No.1 Circular Snapshot

A unique set of 20 photogravures from Peter Henry Emerson, again late 1800s, illustrates the rich historical archives that the NMeM shares through its Flickr photostream.

Peter Henry Emerson – Images from ‘Pictures From Life in Field and Fen’

Another beautiful photograph from this set demonstrates the power of the Commons; a commenter was able to supply location data for this image.

Peter Henry Emerson – Images from ‘Pictures From Life in Field and Fen’

Another favorite set includes images from Charles Darwin’s The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, a book we covered in detail earlier on this blog.

Human Expressions

Last, a fun set they were inspired to create from an exhibit they held on anthromorphology! The National Media Museum: diverse, humorous, and engaging. HAPPY COMMONSVERSARY!

Snapping Dogs

• 4,345 photos (as of August 11), with new ones added almost daily,
• in 168 sets (almost as many as I have!),
• gathered into 7 themed collections that show the breadth and specialization of this collection.

At the core of the Gulbenkian on the Commons are two collections of photographs from two studios: Mário Novais and Horácio Novais. Both men photographed their times and their surroundings, and though individual photos are not always dated, their rich visual content suggests their times.

Horacio, the younger, focused – or so the Gulbenkian’s Commons collection of his work suggests – on the city of Lisbon and the times he lived in.

Mocidade Portuguesa

Among these images are some of great historical importance, capturing the 1931 revolts against the Salazar dictatorship.

Revolta de 26 de Agosto de 1931 em Lisboa

Mário, the elder, focused, in this selection of his work, on photographs of particular events and installations, but also on transportation, institutions, and (as we’ll see later) on the built world around him.

Exposição Henriquina, Lisboa, 1960

Much of the work of his studio over its 50 years was clearly done on commission, so that it shows a breadth of the national interest, not only his own.

Edifícios industriais

Equally important to the focus on these two remarkable – and related – 20th-century Lisbon studios are the architectural and design collections published in the Commons by the Art Library.

The first of these collections is a selection of an extensive 1960s survey of Portuguese, in black and white and in color, by João Miguel dos Santos Simões, for the Foundation’s own reference work Corpus da azulejaria portuguesa.

Azulejaria Portuguesa (Portuguese Tiles)

A second collection focuses on landscape architecture – the work of the first generation of Portuguese landscape architects, in the mid-20th century, including architect Francisco Caldeira Cabral.

Setúbal

And, most especially, the Gulbenkian continues to amass in the Commons an extraordinary collection of images of Portuguese Gothic architecture.

Concelho de Elvas

This photographic survey of 410 black and white prints from the 1950s, from the studio of Mário Novais, depicts exterior and interior views and decorative details of the heights of medieval building in Portugal.

Concelho de Beja

If you have not found these photos in your searches of the Commons, perhaps it is because few have received the attention in tagging that most accounts based in English-speaking countries have. If you have an interest in European history, in museum collections, in architecture, or in Portugal itself, please consider taking a few minutes of your time to make these photographs more easily accessed by others, or to tell a friend or colleague who speaks Portuguese about them.

And to the Foundation itself … Happy Commonsversary!

George Eastman House celebrates their first year on the Flickr Commons with a few words about their achievements on Flickr. We asked Ryan Donahue (Flickr Commons Picture Mover) and Jessica Johnston (Flickr Commons Picture Picker) this question: “If you had to pick 3 things that being on Flickr has done for GEH, what would they be?”

What the Flickr Commons has done for George Eastman House:

1. Engaging and sharing Eastman House collections with Flickr users is fun and helps fulfill our mission to tell the story of photography. What’s better than that?
2. Commons users are giving us a lot of really interesting data about our photos: thousands of tags, hundreds of comments (some insightful, some interesting and some funny).
   There is interesting work yet to be done on the data the project has gathered.
3. The Commons is exposing the museum to online communities that are new to George Eastman House. The Commons is also preparing George Eastman House for the Museum 2.0 movement that is opening new lines of communication and creating conversation between curators and the public. The Commons has fostered George Eastman House’s relationship with innovators in this movement, such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Powerhouse Museum, and the Library of Congress.

Jiu-Jitsu for Women

Outdoor urban market scene

Happy Commonsversary, George Eastman House!

And thanks to Ryan and Jessica for their own words!

GEH as transcribed by Wordle, licensed cc-by

One year ago, George Eastman House entered the Flickr Commons. We celebrate the breadth and depth of GEH’s collection in this special post.

George Eastman House is the world’s oldest photography museum. It opened to the public in 1949 in the mansion and gardens that George Eastman, the founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, called home from 1905 to 1932. Eastman  is often hailed as the “father of modern photography” — and remarkably, this week also saw the 155th anniversary of Eastman’s birth … while this year marked the end of the production of Kodak’s famed Kodachrome film.

One of George Eastman House’s more popular sets of photos is that of Nickolas Muray’s images. From sleek Dodge sedans to women with kittens, Muray’s advertising portfolio has captured the hearts of Commons fans.

Nickolas Muray (set)

The second most “interesting” photograph in the GEH photosteam (right behind that of a rather iconic woman …) is of Grace Sutherland, a carte de visite — the most popular format for portrait photography in the nineteenth century.At turns whimsical, macabre, or poignant, these images are a treat.

Carte de Visites and Cabinet Cards (set)

The Eastman collection on Flickr contains gems from photographic geniuses.The most recently uploaded set contains the timeless work of Eugène Atget, who refused to work with the latest advances in photographic technology (for examples of the technology achieved in his era, check out the GEH’s set of images from William M. Vander Weyde).

Eugène Atget (set)

Personal favorites of mine in their collection are the James Jowers images from the ’60s and ’70s. This street photography is, simply put, stunning.

James Jowers (set)

This past year, George Eastman House, along with other members of the Flickr Commons, celebrated International Women’s Day with a special series of uploads (including, arguably, the most iconic image of a woman ever taken).

Women! (set)

One of GEH’s early uploads is a set from a collection of more than 10,000 glass plate negatives held at George Eastman House by Ch. Chusseau-Flaviens. Not much is known about the collection, so its importance on Flickr cannot be overstated. A rough sampling of comments on this set demonstrate the power of crowdsourcing (and that Flickreenos love these photos!)

Chusseau – Flaviens (set)

In closing, for your amusement and enjoyment, please click through any of these thumbnails to discover treats of the Eastman legacy, and congratulate the museum founded in his name for its first, fabulous year in the Commons.

A very happy Commonsversary to the Bibliothèque de Toulouse! They joined the Flickr Commons on June 28, 2008 with images of the Pyrénées from 100 years ago. They upload to the Commons on a very regular basis, so there is a variety of scenes to explore in their Flickr stream.

La côte basque chronicles life 100 years ago on the Basque Coast. Most of these images are by Eugène Trutat, the Director of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse and a pioneer of photography.

La Côte Basque, Biarritz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

The set Architecture, monuments et archéologie contains valuable images of dolmens in France — prehistoric human-made rock structures.

Dolmen, Mas d’Azil, Ariège

Some favorites in the Toulouse’s stream are of the French countryside and culture, and the set A bicyclette … illustrates well the jovial air of their collection.

Mlle X en vélo, Luchon

Trutat also took some of the earliest photochromes. The archives of these autochromes also contains many geotagged images.

Vue sur le château de la rue du Lycée, Foix

My personal favorites in their Flickr photostream are those of the bridges and aqueducts, some of which date back to the Roman era.

Bibliothèque de Toulouse’s buddy icon Ponts et aqueducs

No trip to France is complete without a visit to the miraculous Lourdes. Included in this set are a few marvelous stereograms.

A la grotte, Lourdes, 23 août 1898

Do take a stroll through the Toulouse’s stream and post up your favorites. Joyeux anniversaire!

What is the Smithsonian Institution?

As Wikipedia tells it,

The Smithsonian Institution was founded for the “increase and diffusion” of knowledge from a bequest to the United States by the British scientist James Smithson (1765–1829), who had never visited the United States himself. In Smithson’s will, he stated that should his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, die without heirs, the Smithson estate would go to the government of the United States for creating an “Establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men”. After the nephew died without heirs in 1835, President Andrew Jackson informed Congress of the bequest, which amounted to 104,960 gold sovereigns, or US$500,000 ($9,235,277 in 2005 U.S. dollars after inflation).

Out of that bequest have grown …

SI Paintings Conservation Lab (cliff1066)

• 19 individual museums, including the National Museum of American History, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and the National Postal Museum.
• 159 affiliate museums, from the Adler Planetarium in Chicago to the York County Culture and Heritage Commission in Rock Hill, SC.
• 9 research centers, from the seas to space, plus — importantly to the SI collections in The Commons — the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute, which offers internships, volunteer opportunities, and courses as well as conducting its own research.

Can’t get to Washington?

Wondering about the National Museum of Photography? No, there isn’t one. Photography makes up part of collections across the Smithsonian — and, if you can’t get to Washington, is prominent in the Smith’s web presence. One of these might grab your imagination:

• the Smithsonian Photography Initiative
• the blog The Bigger Picture: Photography and the Smithsonian
• the participatory site Click! Photography Changes Everything
• the SI Research Information System or
• Smithsonian Images

Even on Flickr there’s more

Even on Flickr, there’s more to the Smithsonian than the Commons. The Smith also has several active groups, inviting you to contribute your own visions of the Smithsonian and what it stands for:

New Courtyard (M.V. Jantzen)

• In the National Museum of American History group, “Share your experiences from your visit to the Museum — whether your photos is of a favorite spot in the museum or the most memorable artifact you encountered.”
• Or share your images of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery.
• @1934 is an American Art group inspired by the exhibition 1934: A New Deal for Artists, on through January 3, 2010 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
• Take your interaction outside the museum or deeper within it, with SIConnections/Lincoln in Your Hometown:  “As we celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth at the Smithsonian, we’re looking for Lincoln images in Washington, D.C., across the country, and around the world (if you can find it!). We’re making connections between history, art, and culture, as well as connections across the centuries, from the time of Lincoln to the inauguration of our new president.”
• For those who join the Smithsonian on tours, share the experience in Extraordinary Cultures Around the World.
• And check out images from the Smithsonian 2.0 Conference,  “a two-day interactive gathering (January 23-24, 2009) exploring how the Smithsonian can better and more effectively reach the younger generation … with its collections, materials, and expertise through the web and web/new media-based interactive strategies.”
• And if you follow @smithsonian on Twitter, there’s a group for you too! @Smithsonian Twitter Inspired Picture Share “provides a space for @Smithsonian Twitter Followers to share their images of the Smithsonian, it’s projects, museums and exhibitions. We will occasionally Tweet a ‘Photo War’ request for photos on specific topics, and this is the place to share, tag and discuss the results.”

Why follow the SI?

Smithsonian volunteer Col. John Braddon (dcrisoh)

Why follow @Smithsonian on Twitter? To try to keep up with what those 19 museums and 9 research centers are up to!

We invite you to move from enjoyment of the treasures of the past preserved and curated by the Smithsonian Institution into a more active engagement with the SI today. Follow, contribute, take a class, even volunteer — be part of the wealth of American heritage today.

On June 16, 2008, the Smithsonian Institution joined the Flickr Commons with a wonderful collection of cyanotypes from the Smithsonian’s first photographer, Thomas William Smillie. The Smithsonian has gone on to upload some of the most loved photos in the Commons. We celebrate the Smithsonian’s Commonversary with the highlights of its past year on Flickr.

The Smith’s most viewed photograph is Uniformed Letter Carrier with Child in Mailbag, from the People and the Post set. #56 in interestingness (on 2008-06-16) 959 people call this photo a favorite Viewed 42,841 times

People and the Post

Another popular early set of Smithsonian photographs is Portraits of Scientists and Inventors, which includes this photo of Albert Einstein. You really have to click through to the image to appreciate the fun folksonomic tagging.

Portraits of Scientists and Inventors

The Smithsonian’s Inauguration set also garnered much attention this past year, particularly as we inaugurated another new President in the United States in 2009. Here is Richard Nixon, with his wife, Patricia, and daughters, Julie and Trisha, speaking at his Inaugural Ball in the Museum of History and Technology, now the National Museum of American History — part of the Smithsonian — January 20, 1973.

Inauguration

There are many contemporary images in the Smithsonian’s Flickr collection. The set American Celebrations documents personal family celebrations, international celebrations of arts and industry at major world expositions, and National Powwows, celebrations of Native American dance and song. This photograph is from the 2002 National Powwow, in which large social gatherings of Native Americans followed traditional dances started centuries ago by their ancestors.

American Celebrations

The Russell E. Train Africana Collection documents both British and American expeditions to Africa. “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” was famously asked by Henry M. Stanley, a newspaper reporter and tireless self-promoter, who was hired in 1871 by the New York Herald to find the missing Livingstone, winning himself wealth and reputation.

Russell E. Train Africana Collection

Because the Smithsonian Institution is comprised of a great many institutions, the Flickr Commons contains amazing and surreal images from the distant past through modern photography: Space, the final frontier, and the subject of all the photographs from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. You are peering 7,000 light years from Earth into the Eagle Nebula here, the “Pillars of Creation.”

Chandra X-ray Observatory

There is so much more to the Smithsonian Institution’s Flickr collection that we could cover in a blog post. Why not peruse their sets yourself and tell us what your favorites are?