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

LSE Library has added more staff portraits from the 1970s-90s to its Commons collection. Did you study at the London School of Economics? Find the staff, faculty, visitors, and fellow students you remember, and tell us about them!

Donald Cameron Watt, c1980

Oregon State University rushes into spring with rushing waters and steadfast stones.

Waterfall at Hug Point

The Galt Museum & Archives have released a set from Lethbridge photographer William Fruet, “the school photographer,” most of whose photographs turn out to be not what he was known for.

A discussion at the Ladies and Escorts entrance of the York Hotel

Do you remember that Science Fair, and Science Talent Search? The Smithsonian does! And don’t miss what’s new in the Women in Science set.

Taimi Toffer Anderson (1937- ), 1956

Our tour of Lisbon continues, as the Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian takes us to the Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira. And how will we get there? By train!

Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira, Lisboa, Portugal

The Powerhouse Museum introduces the Bob Lucas Archive, illustrating “the donor’s life and career in cinema exhibition from the mid 1920s to the late 1980s and offer a highly detailed and personal insight into the activities of a chief technical officer of a premier cinema chain.”

R.J. (Bob) Lucas and unidentified woman looking at a Centrex projector, 1940-1949

There’s more regional “colour” from the National Library of Wales‘ Geoff Charles collection …

Double wedding at Llanrhaeadr – Agnes Della Morris to Mr D Noseworthy and Joan Brown to Mr F Telling

… and more fishy stories from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

Debbie Waterman and Peggy Stephens happily display their tripletail catch off Sanibel Island: Lee County, Florida

The Swedish National Heritage Board travels to Brittany – it thinks. Can you help?

Building in unidentified town, France

The Brooklyn Museumis back overseas, in Italian Cathedrals.

Cathedral, Conversano, Italy.

The Library of Congress’s Friday Bain upload has baseball, a bull, and … fusion floats?

Fusion Floats

And of course, don’t miss the most recent Commons institution: The National Archives UK!

Nationaal Archief, for International Women’s Day, released a housekeeping set – photos joyful and serious of women’s and men’s everyday routine.

Wasgoed wordt gemangeld / Laundry is being passed through the mangle

The DC Public Library has released a large group of photos by E.B. Thomson, including much in color.

In the White House

The Library of Congress’s Friday Bain Collection uploads includes athletes, men of business and politics, royalty, celebrities, battle sites … and a mine disaster in Cardiff, Wales.

Cardiff mine disaster

The National Maritime Museum has new photographs from the Portlands.

London Lighterman

(more…)

This one’s for you, Shelley!

The Nancy Grey with a whale, Norway.

Library of Congress

A whale in Sydney Harbour.

State Library of New South Wales

Model of a whale.

Smithsonian Institution

Posing on whale bones.

State Library and Archives of Florida

Stranded blackfish whales.

National Library of New Zealand

Whaling / Walvisvaart

Nationaal Archief

A sperm whale jawbone.

Nantucket Historical Association

A large whale skeleton.

Field Museum

Whale-back at pier.

Brooklyn Museum

Kobel Feature Photos (Frankfort, Ind.)
Jess Dixon in his flying automobile, c. 1940
State Library and Archives of Florida: 32399-0250

We’d like to expand the Indicommons site by adding Flickr API applications to show off some of the great content in The Commons … and we need your help!

While those of us at Indicommons who can code would love to do this ourselves, we’re finding that we don’t have the time to devote to this task. So, we’re looking for developers who are familiar with the Flickr API to help us out. Unfortunately, this would be need to be done gratis with attribution, as we aren’t monetizing our site, but if you’re interested in The Commons and would like to contribute your skills, we’d love to see what you’ve got.

The following is a list of suggested requirements for the application(s):

• The app will be hosted on our server
• Does not require authentication
• Recent photos from each institution in the Commons, limited to the No Known Copyright Restrictions designation
• A page to handle each institution’s Flickr profile and display their sets
• Commons search
• Commons timeline (a calendar view by date taken)
• Map of the Commons (preferably using Open Street Maps)

In the future, we’d like to see authenticated apps that enable visitors to tag, favorite, and comment on Commons photos as well as to curate galleries, but for now the above few requirements are fine.

If you’d like to develop for Indicommons, please drop us a line in the comments on this post or contact me at zyrcster [at] indicommons.org. Thanks!

From Pablo G. Capistrano, a.k.a. pum chak (o.-) – Play ball!

State Library and Archives of Florida	pum chak (o.-)
ORIGINAL	REMIX

Today, we celebrate The State Library and Archives of Florida’s first anniversary in the Flickr Commons.
The State Archives of Florida houses the archives of the Florida State government. It collects and preserves historically significant records of the state as well as photographs, films, and other important documents that support the official state records. Additionally, it provides access to the archives, for research purposes.

The images – both photographs and film clips – included in the Flickr Commons are part of the Florida Memory Project. This project provides Internet access to primary records of important events in Florida’s history, as well as educational resources for students of all ages. Please enjoy with us some highlights of the collection on Flickr …

Florida’s history has been marked by hurricanes. The images in this set date from 1896 to 2005, showing the devastation, tragedy, and triumphs of spirit the state has experienced after enduring so many storms. Hurricane Ivan was the strongest hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. It made landfall on the U.S. mainland in Gulf Shores, Alabama on September 16, as a Category 3.

Waves hit Navarre Pier hard during Hurricane Ivan’s approach: Navarre Beach, Florida

The Florida Folklife Collection is comprised of a selection of images that represents the work of the Florida Folklife Program. The program, consisting of 88 individual series, documents the performances by, interviews with, and fieldwork surveys of folk musicians, artisans, storytellers, folklife interpreters, and other Florida peoples and their traditions.

Members of Carver School dancing at the 1959 Florida Folk Festival: White Springs, Florida

Happy Commonsversary, Florida!

Winter seems to be a bit “off” in the Northern Hemisphere this year — too little snow in the British Columbia mountains, too much snow in Oklahoma, and much too cold in the UK. But winter in the Commons? It’s always wonderful! See more winter and snow in the Commons.

Carol and Bobbie Ann’s February 1953 snowman, in Richmond, Virginia. (Where are Carol and Bobbie Ann today?)

The Library of Virginia

A snowman on the *other* side of the “pond”, in Wales.

LlGC ~ NLW

It’s a much colder winter in Antarctica – or it certainly was in the 1910s.

State Library of New South Wales

The city of Montreal may be saving on snow-clearing costs this year, but this is what we expect a Montreal winter to look like, even 120 years later.

Musée McCord Museum

Snow-clearing out west — the heavy-duty way.

Galt Museum & Archives

Where little snow fell, in London, there was work for the street sweeper.

George Eastman House

It may be work to clear later, but when the snow makes the city nearly disappear into white, that work is more than repaid by beauty.

Library of Congress

Had enough snow? Maybe it’s time for a visit to Florida …

State Library and Archives of Florida