I’ve been writing about archival photos from The Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration since July of 2005. I was pretty thrilled to see various websites announce that the Library of Congress was putting copyright-free images on Flickr. The picture above is just one of many photos now available from that site, but the only one of Houston so far. In the best Houston tradition, I’m sure it was torn down long ago. I’d be curious to see if anyone knows the location of this house.
I love that the LOC is placing images on Flickr; I think it will legitimize the site as one of the online resources for historical materials. I would also like to see the Library of Congress create collections on the Internet Archive, which is already working with the federal library on a book scanning program. I like the idea of mirroring redundant collections around the internet and I have some scepticism about for-profit ventures like Flickr being guardians of culture. While they may behave well now, there is no accounting for what they may do in the future. Having a big institutional customer and user may help moderate any potential bad tendencies in the future.
That being said, this effort is another way for tax-payers to discover the collections they paid for, let non-profit institutions use existing commercial online resources instead of creating their own and make it easy for someone like myself to place the interesting items on my own site in an easy manner.
Also see: The Best Art from the British Government – Lessons from WWII: Beware of Smart Blonds
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The Best Photographs/Art the Federal Government has to Offer – 6
The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer – 5
The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer – 4
The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer – 3
The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer – 2
The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer – 1
Neon Poisoning 