The Library of Congress Photographic Collection at Flickr

The Library of Congress has teamed up with Flickr, the popular photograph sharing site to present more than 3,100 photographs from the library’s collection.

To expand the reach of the library’s extensive photograph collections with a cost-effective method was one of the goals, and the popularity of this new project has exceeded all hopes. Besides providing better access to its collections, this project also allows the public to add tags to images in the collection, describing the photographs.

The initial 3,100 photographs were posted from two of the library’s most popular photographic collections and include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist. The library wants the public to comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo which will benefit the research community and the collections themselves.

Included in the photographic offering on Flickr are 1,600 color images from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information collection and approximately 1,500 images from the George Grantham Bain News Service collection, two of the more popular collections with visitors to the library. All the images displayed on Flickr have high resolution scans.

Visit the Library of Congress Photographic Collection at Flickr and enjoy the vast array of historic photographs. For more information about the collection visit the Flickr Pilot site at the Library of Congress.