Free Heritage Web Images from the LOC

It was time for some new birthday cards to use in our video biography business. And what better way to celebrate a birthday than with images that form part of our national heritage?

This one is called "Ears that hear not". It was taken around 1914 in the Appalachians. There is a vast visual treasure in our national museums and collections. And with the magic of modern technology, we can view items - from repositories like the Library of Congress - in the comfort and convenience of our homes.

Here is another favorite image of mine. It's a picture of Joseph Schollick, an osteologist at the National Museum in Washington - taken in 1923. (I think we have moved beyond the wholesale exploitation of nature that, sadly, marked previous centuries.) The LOC make images like these available in a number of sizes, including (for some images) uncompressed "tif" files up to 50MB!

And Yosemite, "Overlooking nature's grandest scenery", as the picture title has it. Dating from 1901, the original image was a stereograph, designed to be used with a stereograph viewer for a 3D effect.
It's fairly common for us to use these or other archive images in our personal history projects. Since many of these images are now part of the public domain, they can be used without restriction in video documentary projects.

And my Mom's favorite: "Farm children playing on a homemade merry-go-around, Williams County, North Dakota." It was taken by Russell Lee in 1937 as part of the Farm Security Administration's national photographic project. (Grandparents can show it when the grandkids ask, "What did you do before computer games?".)

If you are interested in viewing more images from the wonderful collection at the Library of Congress, start here: LOC Images. 

Interested in tips on incorporating images in a video biography project? Recording memoirs on video is an increasingly popular method for preserving personal and family history. And nothing enhances a video memoir more than well placed and well timed photographs. Video Memoirs: Best Ways to Include Photos.

Postscript: If you are interested in other historical images freely available on the web then there are a wealth of websites offering suggestions.  My five personal favorites are gathered here in this article I wrote recently  "Best Free Web Images: 5 Sites to Browse, Download and Go Nuts".  Good luck!