Digital collections

In 1868, A.J. Russell began a project to document the construction of the Union Pacific, the eastern portion of the first transcontinental railroad. Railroad executives, attuned to the way that photographs might enhance support for their work among investors, politicians, and the general public, offered Russell extraordinary cooperation.

Browse a newly digitized collection of rare glass stereographs by Carleton Watkins documenting the Mariposa estate of Col. John C. Frémont and his family.

In 1871, John Wesley Powell appointed seventeen year-old Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh as artist and assistant topographer for his second expedition down the Colorado River.

Explore the personal notebooks, letters, clippings, and photos relating to the life of the American nature writer and environmentalist, Rachel Carson.

The Philippe Zoummeroff Collection of May 1968 depicts—through startlingly raw and graphical imagery— the explosion of protests that swept across France and nearly toppled the government of Charles de Gaulle.

Browse over 9,000 portraits of the most famous and influential figures of Carl Van Vechten's day.