Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Many were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.

"Head of a Girl, 1905." Hampton, Virginia. "Girl at elementary school affiliated with the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute." Gum bichromate print by pioneering fine-art photographer Fred Holland Day (1864-1933), whose work we'll be seeing more of every Sunday for the next few months. View full size.
He trained as a painter (which shows in his photos, I think) and was the first photographer to champion the idea of photography as a fine art.
He tutored and mentored poor immigrant children, including Kahlil Gibran!
He influenced Stieglitz.
Two thousand of his prints were lost in a fire in 1904. Only a few hundred survived.
His home, 93 Day Street, Norwood, Massachusetts, remains as a museum. http://www.norwoodhistoricalsociety.org/fhd.html
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