Art and Design

Original drawings by American book, magazine, and newspaper illustrators,1880-1910.

Engravings, illustrations, woodcuts, lithographs, fine photogravures, and photographic prints in books published between 1840 and 1970.

Drawings from 1750 to 1970. Includes eye-witness sketches from the US Civil War plus topographical views, bank note vignettes, portraits, and courtroom sketches. Russian drawings show areas of China in the 1800s.

Prints created as art works, ca. 1450-present. American printmakers and artists (e.g., Paul Revere, Mary Cassatt, Jim Dine, Joseph Pennell) predominate.

Woodblock prints and drawings by Japanese artists of the 17^th through early 20^th centuries.

Paintings, cartoon illustrations, and photographs showing working people, American industry, and political situations. Art work by social realists, women, African Americans, and Mexicans is well represented.

Design sketches for stained glass windows, murals, mosaics, furnishings, metalwork, and interior architecture. The drawings feature striking watercolors created from the 1860s to the 1990s, primarily for churches, synagogues, and other sacred spaces.

Manuscripts, lithographic books and early imprints, plus printed books in Persian.

Views of Europe, the Middle East, and North America, 1890s through the 1910s. Created by the Photoglob Company in Zürich, Switzerland, and the Detroit Publishing Company in Michigan.The richly colored images look like photographs but are actually ink-based photolithographs.

About 15,000 historical prints (ca. 1700-1900) created to document geographic locations or popular subjects and sometimes used for advertising and educational purposes.

Hundreds of photographs, maps, and books highlighting the contributions of African-Americans; originally curated by W.E.B. Du Bois and Thomas J. Calloway.

Views and portraits made during the Civil War (1861-1865) and its immediate aftermath. Original glass plate negatives made under the supervision of Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner.

Most images are portraits, but includes some early architectural views, outdoor scenes, and copies of works of art. Many images here are credited to Mathew Brady's studio.

African Americans in military and social history, from the Civil War through 1945.

American cityscapes, landscapes, and group portraits. The images date from 1851 to 1991 and depict scenes in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.

Photographic prints that have a special aesthetic, technical, or historic importance.

Cities and towns around the world, expeditions and expositions, industries, disasters, and portraits of Native Americans, presidents, and celebrities (1870-1920).

40,000 drawings from 1600-1989, with most dating between 1880 and 1940. Designs are primarily for sites and structures in the US (especially Washington, DC), plus Europe and Mexico.

Images showing an estimated 1,700 structures and sites in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, plus some in Florida, Mississippi, and West Virginia, all by Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952).

Architectural styles and trends throughout the nation from the perspective of the architect as well as the client (1896-1970).

Documents achievements in architecture, engineering, and landscape design in the US and its territories through a range of building types, engineering technologies, and landscapes.

Documents the architecture and social life of the Washington metropolitan area in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, including exteriors and interiors of commercial, residential, and government buildings, plus street scenes.