National Geographic: the historic picture collection

[Varese2002]

Recently we were wondering on the Forum Aerodrome about the whereabouts of the historic picture collection of the National Geographic.
Everything seems to be very healthy kept in the archives of National Geography as they have on their site a topic called 'Picture of the day'. AFAIK there is no possibility to search, but I saw a marvellous picture of the Katydid Glider, Chicago, Illinois, 1907 here.
The picture was published in an article in National Geographic magazine January 1908 "Dr. Bell's Man-Lifting Kite". So they have at least archived their original print or even their original negative / glass plate.

Probably there are more originals on their site. Surely in their picture archive are hundreds of pictures never seen again after publication in National Geographic or never seen at all as the pictures were not selected for publication.

Cheers

Kees

[Jim Bruton]

Tha National Geographic photograph collection is housed near their Washington, DC offices in a climate-controlled environment. While much of their original stock arrived in the form of slide transparencies or photograhic negatives, they have been scanning their archives into a digital format.

Perhaps the day will come when they will be able to make available online all of their material in a low resolution format, with prices for higher resolutions.



Jim Bruton

[Varese2002]

Thanks Jim about the information on the National Geographic picture collection. It is good to hear that everything starting from the beginning is cared for. The scanning of this huge collection must be an enormous project.

Making available (parts of) the collection in a lower quality scan would be a great idea. The problem (or challenge ) is of course how to find specific pictures. The one picture of th Katydid Glider of 1907 is just a piece of luck to find.

Let's wait and see what can be accomplished in time.

Cheers

Kees

[Ricardo Reis]

They could join the pioneer effort of the Library of Congress in flickr...

Flickr: The Library of Congress' Photostream

[Rod_Filan]

Thanks for posting the link to the LOC Photostream Ricardo. Although the aviation images were far and few between, I particularly liked viewing the many photos of the dead-ball era World Series and famous ballplayers. Among the several 'boys of summer' I found Christy Mathewson, one of the "First Five" inductees into the Hall of Fame, and Eddie Ciotte, the knuckleballer indited in the 1919 'Black Sox' scandal.

Perhaps the most interesting for myself was seeing two-thirds of the most famous double-play combination in history -- Chicago Cubs Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance -- the subject of Baseball's Sad Lexicon -- a poem as well-know as any other in 1910:

These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double --
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

Oh...and your link was interesting too Kees

Cheers
Rod

[Varese2002]

Originally Posted by Ricardo Reis

They could join the pioneer effort of the Library of Congress in flickr...

Flickr: The Library of Congress' Photostream

I admire the effort of the Library of Congress to show their collection of pictures and let the public do some identifying, but the National Geographic collection is different in a way.
The LC has bought large collections of pictures and negatives in the past. The biggest buy is the Baines collection (a press agency), which had only minimal data. Most of the information there is, is carved in the picture.
The National Geographic is a different league altogether, as it is their collection, carefully described. Look at the information they have on the 1907 picture presented, they even know the photographer.

My point was more how to find a special picture in an (indexed) mass of pictures which numbers in the millions

Ricardo, thanks for the link to your Flickr pieces. The Alamanach Hachette 1917 looks interesting.

Cheers

Kees

[Ricardo Reis]

Hi Varese

Yes, I understand the different ways they are coming from and needs. My point is, if the target if finding, if you have enough critical mass, it would be beneficial to allow the public to tag the photos. Then you would probably find connections you don't have otherwise. I've been speaking with people connected to libraries and archives and the current methods seem to much rigid. They also have norms and strict rules about the words and descriptions they can use. I can understand that but in many contexts the situation has changed. You don't need to rely on only a few to do the job, you can outsource, especially if you have a big interest base (critical mass) to do the job. Off course, a balance should be achieve. I can think of allowing people to tag if you just consider tags as that, help marks left in the woods to help you find the trees of interest. For a more thorough job some sort of curation is needed. And see, although NG can have a bunch of info on each photograph I'll be if left open there is someone out there that can add something more to the puzzle.

About the Library of Congress the most amazing photos, for me, are the colour slides from the late 30's and 40s. The colour is... well, amazing

greets,

Ricardo Reis

[buzz1941]

Another primary difference -- The Library of Congress is a federal agency. National Geographic is a private non-profit.