The Flickr Commons project lets us see the 19th-century beginnings of photography represented in a very 21st-century space. And among those early treasures, we have reminders that women were there at the very beginning, some of the first to embrace photography as an art and as a tool. Consider these four founding mothers:

Anna Atkins (1799-1871) is represented in the Commons by her Photographs of British Algae, found as a set in the New York Public Library’s Flickr stream. Atkins studied science as her father’s assistant and made illustrations of shells for his 1823 translation of Lamarck’s book on the subject. She collected botanical samples, and through both her father and her husband came to know William Fox Talbot, inventor of the negative/positive process. By about 1841 she had access to a camera, but she’s best known for her 1843-45 cyanotypes (sunprints) of algae specimens. She collaborated with another woman, Anne Dixon (1799-1864), on other albums of botanical cyanotypes.

Fucus nodosus (1843-53), New York Public Library

Mary Dillwyn (1816-1906) was also acquainted with William Fox Talbot through family networks: her older brother John Dillwyn Llewelyn (himself a photographer) married Talbot’s cousin Emma. Mary was using a small camera in the early 1850s, and made a specialty of rather informal portraits for the time. After she married a clergyman in 1857, she gave up photography. Her work is to be found in the LIGC-NLW (National Library of Wales) Flickr stream, including this self-portrait from 1853.

Mary Dillwyn M.D. 1853 [self-portrait], LIGC-NLW (National Library of Wales)

Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), who was raised in India, only started taking pictures at age 48, in 1863, when someone gave her a camera as a gift. Through her sister, she knew Tennyson and other writers and artists, and drew from their work in her subjects and poses. Cameron was also forward-thinking enough to get each of her images registered with the copyright office. She continued to make photographs when she moved back to Ceylon in 1875, but it was hard to get the necessary supplies there. The George Eastman House and the National Media Museum Flickr streams both include examples of Cameron’s work.

Ophelia Study No. 2, 1867, George Eastman House

Baby “Pictet”, 1863, National Media Museum

Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake (1809-1893) wasn’t herself a photographer. She was an art critic who wrote one of the first and most influential essays about photography as an art form, in 1857, declaring that “[p]hotography is intended to supercede much that art has hitherto done, but only that which it was both a misappropriation and a deterioration of Art to do.” She was married to Sir Charles Eastlake, the first president of the Royal Photographic Society. A Hill and Adamson portrait of Lady Eastlake (an early subject of photography as well as an early supporter) c. 1845 can be found in the Flickr stream of the National Galleries of Scotland.

Hill and Adamson, Lady Elizabeth (Rigby) Eastlake, 1809-1893. Writer, c. 1845, National Galleries of Scotland

The Commons Galleries – featuring pennylrichardsca’s curation

The children of strikers in Lawrence MA were sent to live with families in New York. It meant they had more adequate material care than their parents could then provide, but it also meant a poignant photo opportunity.

Library of Congress

Coal miners in Lancashire were striking in 1912; their daughters marched in support.

Library of Congress

Sylvia Pankhurst was a life-long protester on many issues, but on this day in 1932 her specific cause was protesting English policy in India. (Notice the Indian women behind her.)

Nationaal Archief

The Jarrow March was a 1936 march to protest extreme poverty and unemployment in North East England. About 200 marchers walked the 300 miles from the town of Jarrow to London, along with their MP, “Red Ellen” Wilkinson.

National Media Museum

January 26, 1938, was the sesquicentennial of British colonization in Australia, and was declared an Aboriginal Day of Mourning, a day to demand full citizenship rights for aboriginal Australians.

State Library of New South Wales

A feminist protest in Amsterdam, 1981, in favor of abortion rights.

Nationaal Archief

View the full gallery here to leave your comments!

Shelley Bernstein
Getting Ready for Common Ground 2009 – Brooklyn Museum

The Commons is busting with activity with various institutions preparing for Common Ground! You’ve got until 16 September 2009 to VOTE.

Heard around and about The Commons:

• The Commons: Using the Web to Unlock Little Mysteries of the Past, is a very good write-up by Philip Bump, a technology and communications consultant in New York City. He illustrates the article with an example from the Commons.
• A History of Our Own, Representing Communities and Identities on the Web (SAA09: Session 202), a summary of Andrew Flinn’s session at the Society of American Archivists’ recent conference, by Jeanne Kramer-Smyth. She wraps the Commons into her final thoughts about the session.
• Did you know that the Getty Museum has audio tours you can listen to on your mobile phone? Check this one out.
• Smithsonian Museum Day is Saturday, 26 September 2009! Enjoy free general admission for you and a guest to hundreds of museums and cultural venues throughout the United States.
• How did you witness history on September 11, 2001? Share your story with the Smithsonian Institute’s September 11: Tell Your Story.
• Take This Job & Shoot It! by Catherine Shteynberg, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, discusses photography and the documentation of labor through the years.
• Here Comes the Revolution? Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, reports on the new open source initiative for photographic technology that’s happening at Stanford University.
• The Powerhouse Museum is preparing a new exhibition From Earth to the Universe with Photographic Astronomer David Malin, featuring photographs showcasing the beauty and mystery of our Universe. Catch the previews on their blog.
• The new high-definition restoration of The Wizard of Oz was made possible in part because of George Eastman House’s safekeeping of the original materials!
• There is still time to check out the Field Museum’s Water exhibition, and Marisa Naujokas, Chicago Environmental Health Examiner, tells you why you should visit. Hurry! It closes 20 September 2009.
• The hugely popular and inspirational BP Portrait Award returns to Edinburgh and to the National Galleries of Scotland, beginning 12 December 2009.
• Love Letter Update, from the Australian War Memorial. Learn more about a mysterious love letter from a young French woman to her soldier sweetie.
• Here’s an Animal Mummy Update from the Brooklyn Museum.
• The National Media Museum posts their Film Guide – yay, go watch a good flick with them!
• Hey cool, the Getty has a Dorothea Lange photograph in their collection. Let’s tweet them to get that into the Commons with the other Lange images!

Overheard on Twitter

Paula Bray
A lightcycle goes down under
to visit the Powerhouse Museum

…turns out the #lightcycle has made it to Sydney where @paulabray and @erikajoy are cooking up something http://yfrog.com/5hfersj – Brooklyn Museum tweet

The Smithsonian Institution’s brand-new Secretary, Wayne Clough, discusses the prospects of the 163-year-old largest museum and research complex in the world — including the long-term future of science and education.

Heard around The Commons on Flickr:

• Flickr Commons: It was a year ago…, a summary of the National Media Museum’s first year in The Commons. “100,000s of views, 1000s of comments, and 100s of arguments over whether they were fake or real, spooky or not. “
• The National Media Museum has podcasts! Check out their interview with the screenwriter and executive producer of ITV’s new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, held prior to a preview screening of the film.
• 1stfans Twitter Art Feed Artist at the Brooklyn Museum for September 2009: Duke Riley.
• They also release a nifty application, BklynMuse, a community-powered recommendation system for the objects that are on display there!
• Read the Wall Street Journal’s take on “state-of-the-art museum tours”; they talk to Shelley Bernstein at the Brooklyn Museum. The New York Post weighs in, too.
• artdaily praises the new exhibition at the Getty Museum, Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference.
• The Chicago Tribune writes about the acquisition of lynching victim Emmett Till’s casket by the Smithsonian Institution.
• The SI’s National Museum of American History launched a new exhibition earlier this year, On the Water: Stories from Maritime America. They also have a Flickr group for your images of maritime activities across the United States of America.
• SI experiments with ShareTabs, a quick way to share links.
• That Picture Looks Great On You: Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, talks about the new ubiquity of photography.
• Photos, Guns, Africa, Stanley, & Kalulu, Catherine Shteynberg, Smithsonian Photography Initiative — a story straight out of The Commons.
• Bamboo, bamboo, bamboo bamboobamboobamboobam.
• Reading War and Peace, some advice on reading this classic literature, on the New York Public Library’s blog.
• The Library of Congress announces their September film series.
• Powerhouse Museum announces their Common Ground meetup in October!
• The U.S. National Park Service celebrated their birthday on August 25th. If you couldn’t get to a park this weekend, enjoy Yosemite — it’s in The Commons!
• The State Library of Queensland, Australia, hosted Commandant Henry Miller’s descendant, Quentin Miller, at Redcliffe, which was the first European settlement in Queensland, established as the Moreton Bay Penal Colony in September 1824.
• The butcher and the grocer: A Western Front story, by the Australian War Memorial.
• Oregon State University Archives reports on the 6-month closure of the The Southern Oregon Historical Society. :””(
• They also post a nifty history of Mazamas, a climbing club in Portland, Oregon.
• And! They announce their digitized book, Oregon, a story of progress and development, together with an account of the Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition to be held in Portland, Oregon, from June first to October fifteenth, nineteen hundred and five, available on ScholarsArchive. Dang, Tiah, that’s a mouthful!

Monday Morning Mayhem!

Mehgan Murphy/Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Burrowing Owl Babies, August 28, 2009
Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo

The Smithsonian asked last week if the tweeples following them on Twitter could identify these newborns. They did!

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo welcomed two burrowing owl chicks Aug. 2—the first hatching of this species at the Zoo in 30 years. The chicks’ parents, a 5-year-old male and 4-year-old female, have been at the Zoo since June 2006.

The last time burrowing owls successfully bred at the National Zoo was in the late 1970s. A recent population-management plan recommended breeding the Zoo’s current adult pair. The chicks are with their parents in the Zoo’s Bird House. Currently, there is semi-transparent filter paper covering their exhibit, providing the chicks with privacy. As they become more comfortable with their new surroundings, the paper will slowly be removed.

Today, we celebrate the one year anniversary of the National Media Museum’s induction into the Flickr Commons! The National Media Museum is located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK. It is “devoted to film, photography, television, radio and the web.”

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

A bag functions like a physical envelope that is used to send content through the mail but with bags, a user sends content from one computer to another. This video describes the preparation and transfer of data over the network in bags.

Heard around the Commons:

• Got a minute to vote for the Powerhouse Museum’s incredible Flickr Commons book? C’mon – click on over to Blurb.
• Stereo-view detail: The Powerhouse Museum gives a little background on the topic.
• All is not lost – using digital photography to recover daguerreotypes: a great preservation resource from the Powerhouse.
• Michael Feinstein comes to George Eastman House in October – get yer tickets!
• Oregon State University Archives explains their “trip to Mount Hood.”
• Are you reading the National Library of New Zealand’s Source? Every Friday, a wrap-up of things of use to digital libraries..
• Cataloging for Gold: Learn what college students have unearthed at the Library of Congress over the summer.
• Art review: The Chimaera of Arezzo at the Getty Villa: An LA Times article about happenings at the Getty Museum.
• Want to know where to stay up with the Smithsonian Institution online? card.ly can help.
• Right now in the Luce Foundation Center (Smithsonian Institution) you can borrow a Flip Mino and shoot a video of your museum visit!
• What price fame? by Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, discusses Annie Leibovitz’s financial situation in a broader sense.
• And, Down at the Drive-In, by Christin Boggs, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, is an awesome take on the intersection of media and transportation.
• And the SI has some notes about the International Astronomical Union (IAU) meeting on their Chandra X-ray blog. Check out their 10th Anniversary post, too.
• Did Michael Jackson model face after Egyptian bust? The Chicago Sun-Times unearths some spooky stuff at the Field Museum.
• Fflur Dafydd wins £5,000 literary prize for book set at The National Library of Wales! yay!
• Plan a trip to the National Media Museum!
• Or, learn from them how to digitize motoring photographs!
• The State Library of Queensland, Australia, weighs in on conserving gilded frames in the Richard Daintree Photographic Collection.

Friday Fun!

… your welcome is assured…

History in the making, with a clip of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy Weekend!

The Commons has serious purposes and plenty of important content, but the folks in the Flickr Commons group still love spotting those adorable, irresistible animals! Wouldn’t you love one of these on a cushion or your morning coffee mug?

Two camels and a donkey!

Brooklyn Museum

Upside-down sloth!

Field Museum Library

Monkey on a rhino!

George Eastman House

A koala … yawning!

National Media Museum

Pig!	National Media Museum

Penguins in love! (okay, maybe not really …)

State Library of New South Wales

And baby barn owls!

Oregon State University Archives

Thanks to Nina, Ryan, 73939133 and Penny for the cuteness!

This is your weekly update of important events and notes about the institutions that partake in the Flickr Commons.

• Virtuous circle – from visitor to speaker: Read about how the Flickr Commons transformed the relationship of one of the Powerhouse Museum’s guests.
• The mystery of Level One: what is happening at the Powerhouse Museum?
• What in the Powerhouse’s workshop? A telescope!
• The Brooklyn Museum releases v.1.3 of their iPhone application… and lessons learned.
• Cool – the Brooklyn Museum’s iPhone application gets a mention on the O’Reilly Radar.
• And check out their awesome Twitter profile at Beyond the Fail Whale.
• How Green These Valleys Were: Some info about the Library of Congress’s recent uploads to the Commons.
• Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy v 1.0: Hot off the press.
• Who do you trust? A post by Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, on the veracity of photojournalism.
• Are You There? by Merry A. Foresta, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, on travel photography.
• Ten Years Later: A round-up of the Chandra X-ray Lab, from the Smithsonian.
• Matthew Lewis talks Harry Potter 7, IMAX, and weird fans, all at the National Media Museum.
• Praise for PANDORA: A post from the State Library of Queensland, Australia, on Australia’s Web Archive. They also have 3 new digital stories available.
• Fellowship Awards Preserves Films: A short report on this project by George Eastman House.
• Job Search: How to Avoid Interview Mishaps: Get armed for your next job interview, from the good folks at the New York Public Library.
• Also, The Craft of the Book: Reading List: A PSA from the NYPL
• Oh yea, and the NYPL is looking for a Senior Applications Developer. Apply now.
• The Australia War Memorial goes on the offense about the terms ‘wounded’ and ‘injured’.

Friday Fun!

Need more baby animals fix? Look no farther than Flickr and the National Zoo’s photostream.

Go Visit!

01 August – My Fair Lady at the Dryden Theatre, George Eastman House, a Lerner and Loewe classic.

Now through 18 October – In Focus: Making a Scene at the Getty Museum. Theatricality and photography: “the images in this exhibition are inspired by art history, literature, religion, and mainstream media.”

13 August – The New York Public Library partners with the NYC chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association to host screenings of HBO’s series on Alzheimer’s Disease.

NASA
Astronaut James Irwin gives salute beside U.S. flag during lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA), August 1, 1971
George Eastman House: 1992:0007:0002.0001

• George Eastman House posts a terrific podcast on the The Lunar Orbiter Camera, manufactured by Eastman Kodak.
• Also from GEH, The Moon Imagined, about James Hall Nasmyth and the moon.
• The Getty Museum tweeted a great old moon photo in their collection to celebrate the 40th anniversary of men walking on the moon.
• Students can help archive the Internet – the Library of Congress teams up with the Internet Archive (hey! George works there, yay!) and the California Digital Library to launch the K-12 Web Archiving Program.
• The Field Museum launches a new Facebook application! Get yer pirate on, matey…
• Preserving Gallipoli aerial photographs, an article from the Australian War Memorial about one of their fascinating and unusual collections.
• Check out the Picks from the feminist bloggers on the Brooklyn Museum’s site: Feminist art, news, and events from the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.
• Have you read the New York Public Library’s Blogging@NYPL? A great resource for book reviews and info on their services.
• Read Destination: Niagara Falls, a great article by Christin Boggs of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative.
• Iain Logie Baird, the curator of television at the National Media Museum, talks with the BBC about an old TV set.
• View podcasts of the NMeM’s film series.
• The Oregon State University Archives has a new take on preserving history (psst, it involves Flickr!)
• The Powerhouse Museum asks for your help with direct input into the Australian Government 2.0 Issues Paper.
• Do also check out some fun notes about their Odditorium exhibit.
• Learn about debris from an exploded star in the Smithsonian Institution’s Chandra X-ray Lab blog.
• View the Design in D.C. webcasts on Friday, July 24, 10 a.m.–11 a.m., from the Smithsonian’s National Design Museum.

Our weekly look around the Commons’ institutions to see what’s happening both digitally and brick-&-mortar.

Fill the Gap: Case 55B (Jul 09) by the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Help the Smithsonian American Art Museum find an object for this space by searching their online collections.

• RIP Michael Jackson. Some notes about his passing from the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian.
• Gone, But Not Forgotten: Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, laments the passing of Kodachrome.
• m-Libraries 2009 coverage by the New York and D.C. Public Libraries.
• PandaCam at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo!
• Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution discusses how the Smithsonian is using new technology tools in support of the Institution’s 163-year-old mission: the “increase and diffusion of knowledge,” in this CSPAN video.
• Did you know that the Smithsonian streams live events on ustream?
• Vote for the best dressed in red, white, and blue in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History 4th of July contest!
• Intern opportunities are available at that museum, too. Check out this write-up of what it’s like to intern for them.
• Guinea pigs wanted for the D.C. Public Library’s Google Voice platform! Check out the DCPL’s other projects, too, including an iPhone app.
• You can learn a language at the D.C. Public Library, too.
• 8 finding aids for the Oregon State University Archives collections were completed or updated in June 2009.
• Judith H. Dobrzynski had lunch with Arnold Lehman, director of the Brooklyn Museum; they discussed the problem of permanent collections.
• Hey U, Tune In: The Library of Congress is now on iTunes!
• Learn about the people that make the stacks come alive in this Library of Congress post.
• Is a Bad Economy Ever ‘Good’? Read this LOC post about public service announcements, the Ad Council, and the donation of ad inventory by papers struggling to stay afloat in the new economy.
• Learn more about the global recession and the arts in this round-up from The Source, National Library of New Zealand.
• Find, Out. NLNZ’s discovery service is now in beta!
• See Old McDonald … and Dick and Jane, a favorite of Jay Vissers, New York Public Library.
• The delphiniums are in bloom at the George Eastman House! Check out their trials with email in Picturing Rochester: Behind the Scenes.
• Keep up to date on all the happenings of the Swedish National Heritage Board during Almedal Week. Lots of information and presentation info, and links to translate it all into English.
• Museums as soup kitchens for the soul, from the Powerhouse Museum.
• These podcasts from the State Archives and Library of Florida will brighten any day. I’ve been listening as I compile this. :)
• Download the National Media Museum’s film schedule.
• First World War diary record series passes 400,000 images at the Australian War Memorial.
• The History of the John Oxley Library – Part Five, by the State Library of Queensland, Australia.

Friday Fun!

Astoria, Oregon, Oregon State University Archives

Take a trip with the Oregon State University Archives! People and Places: Early “Oregon” – a great overview of OSU Archive’s latest release to the Commons.

Go Visit!

Ending July 5 - Caillebotte: The works of impressionist painter, Gustave Caillebotte, exclusively at the Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn is the final stop on this tour and the only American venue for this exhibition.

Ending July 5 - Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry: Exquisite Objects from the Cradle of Civilization at Chicago’s Field Museum.

Now through July 11 - Foundry to Finish: Making of a Bronze Sculpture at the Getty; This exhibition and accompanying photographs and videos demonstrate the process of bronze casting as Adriean de Vries practiced it for Juggling Man.

July 20-24 - Summer School – How Do You Make Powerful Art? at the National Galleries of Scotland. Investigate art from Raphael to Damien Hirst, looking at why artists make art.