Skip to main content Skip to main content

Essential Lens: Analyzing Photographs Across the Curriculum

Series Resources Additional Photograph Resources

Here you will find a list of links to common digitized photograph and photographic ephemera collections for both humanities and science-based topics, primarily from the United States.

Local libraries and historical societies are also a great place to access photographs that connect to both local and national history. Local science museums may also have digitized collections for educational use.

This list also provides examples of additional lesson plan resources currently available online. Educators can explore these sites to find quality materials and ideas for enhancing teaching strategies with photographs.

Because URLs can change over time, some links may not work in the future. Searching for the name of the collection should take you to the appropriate website, however.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The legal responsibility for any use of photographs or other materials rests exclusively with you. For more information about copyright, see the Guide to Researching Photographs. It is also your responsibility to check with your own institution’s legal policies before proceeding.

Social Studies, History, and Literature Sites

Library of Congress (LOC)

Photographs and Prints
www.loc.gov/pictures

LOC Flickr site
www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress

LOC World War I 
memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/rotogravures/rotogal.html

LOC Farm Security Administration Images
www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa

Civil Rights (1963 Civil Rights March on Washington)
www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=march%20washington%201963&st=gallery&fi=subject&loclr=blogpic

Civil Rights (Demonstrations)
www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=civil%20rights%20demonstrations&sg=true

Ansel Adams (1902–1984) 
Photographs of Japanese–American internment at Manzanar
ww.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=manz

Edward S. Curtis (1868–1952)
The collection includes a large number of Native American individuals or group portraits, as well as traditional and ceremonial dress, dwellings and other structures, agriculture, arts and crafts, rites and ceremonies, dances, games, food preparation, transportation, and scenery from 1900–1930. More than 1,000 of the photographs have been digitized and individually described.
www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=ecur

Louis Wickes Hine (1874–1940)
Labor; Ellis Island immigrants
www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Lewis%20Wickes%20Hine

Gordon Parks (1912–2006) 
Inner-city black neighborhoods; civil rights
www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?va=exact&co=fsa&st=gallery&q=Parks%2C+Gordon%2C+1912-2006&fi=author&sg=true&op=EQUAL

 

United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

Photographs and Graphic Works 
www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/photographs-dc.html#photos

National Archives Flickr site
www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives

Lewis Hine 
www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/sets/72157630406504922

Farm Security Administration Photos
research.archives.gov/search?expression=Farm+Security+Administration&pg_src=brief&data-source=online

Civil War 
www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos

Photographs of the American West: 1861–1912
www.archives.gov/research/american-west

Pictures of Native Americans in the United States
www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/pictures

World War II
www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/photos

Vietnam War 
Teaching with Documents: The War in Vietnam—A Story in Photographs
www.archives.gov/education/lessons/vietnam-photos

 

Other Social Studies, History, and Literature sites

The Digital Public Library of America 
dp.la/info

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR Media)media.unhcr.org/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=Home

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
www.siris.si.edu

Smithsonian Institution Collections Search Center
collections.si.edu/search

World Digital Library
www.wdl.org/en

The White House
www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse

Presidential Libraries

Science

ARS (USDA Agricultural Research Service) Image Gallery
www.ars.usda.gov/oc/images/image-gallery/

NASA Multimedia Gallery 
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/highlights/index.html

Climate Image Gallery
climate.nasa.gov/state_of_flux#Aral_Sea_930x463.jpg

National Human Genome Research Institute
www.genome.gov/dmd/index.cfm?node=Photos

National Institution of General Medical Sciences: Image Gallery
images.nigms.nih.gov

National Library of Medicine: Images from the History of Medicine
www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/ihm

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
www.photolib.noaa.gov

National Park Service
www.nps.gov/photosmultimedia/photogalleries.htm

National Renewable Energy Lab Renewable
images.nrel.gov

Natural Resources Conservation Service
photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov

National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery
www.nsf.gov/news/mmg

National Snow and Ice Data Center
nsidc.org/gallery

Public Health Image Library (PHIL) from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
phil.cdc.gov/Phil/default.asp

United States Antarctic Program
photolibrary.usap.gov

United States Department of Agriculture
www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=23559

United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service
www.flickr.com/search/?w=41284017@N08&q=forest%20service

United States Department of Energy
www.flickr.com/photos/departmentofenergy

United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/bpd.html

United States Fish and Wildlife Service
digitalmedia.fws.gov

United States Geologic Survey
gallery.usgs.gov

Wellcome Images
wellcomeimages.org

Miscellaneous

Art Images for College Teaching (AICT) by A. T. Kohl
quod.lib.umich.edu/a/aict?page=index

Department of Defense-Media Archives
www.dvidshub.net

FEMA
www.fema.gov/media-library

State Photo and Multimedia Galleries via USA.gov
search.usa.gov/search/images?affiliate=usagov&query=

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
www.ushmm.org/search/results.php?q=photographs&q__src=&q__grp=&q__typ=&q__mty=Image&q__sty=&q__lng=

Virginia Commonwealth University: Civil Rights Collection
dig.library.vcu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/far

Education Resources

Additional collections of photographs with activities for teachers and students can be found at the Annenberg Space for Photography, and on the Annenberg Learner website, as well as other sources.

 

Annenberg Space for Photography

www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/education

Annenberg Learner

American Passages: A Literary Survey (Unit 12, Migrant Struggle activities, Documentary Photography and Film)
www.learner.org/amerpass/unit12/context_activ-2.html

Artifacts & Fiction (Unit 7, Ritual Artifacts Discipline Tutorial)
www.learner.org/workshops/artifacts/discipline_tutorials.php?tutorial=7&page=intro

America’s History in the Making (Primary vs. Secondary Source Material)
www.learner.org/courses/amerhistory/resource_archive/primary.html

A Biography of America (Unit 11, The Civil War, Analyzing a photo as a historical document)
www.learner.org/series/biographyofamerica/prog11/index.html

and

www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/progabout/about/index.html

Journey North
www.learner.org/jnorth/

Primary Sources: Workshops in American History
www.learner.org/workshops/primarysources/index.html

Shedding Light on Science (Unit 1, Shine and Shadow Photography activities)
www.learner.org/workshops/sheddinglight/camera/index.html

Teaching Multicultural Literature, Workshop 8. Social Justice and Action Teaching Strategies, Photography Project
www.learner.org/workshops/tml/workshop8/teaching3.html

 

Other Educational Resources

Library of Congress 
America’s First Look into the Camera: Daguerrotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1862
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/daguerreotype/

Civil War Portraits with Curriculum
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/liljenquist-civil-war-photos/

Dust Bowl with Curriculum
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/dust-bowl-migration/

Japanese Relocation with Curriculum
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/internment/

Native American’s Assimilation
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/assimilation/

National Archives
Vietnam
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/vietnam-photos/activities.html

Lewis Hine
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hine-photos/activities.html

Japanese Relocation
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation/

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Environmental Visualization Laboratory
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov

Series Directory

Essential Lens: Analyzing Photographs Across the Curriculum

Credits

Produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting. © 2015
  • Closed Captioning
  • ISBN: 1-57680-905-6

Collections