Masked Martian Girls: Mine & Historical

Zoe - Goofing in the Garage, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Like girls from Mars are these "top women" at U.S. Steel's Gary, Indiana, Works. Their job is to clean up at regular intervals around the tops of twelve blast furnaces. As a safety precaution, the girls wear oxygen masks., 1940 - 1945

Best Photographs from the Federal Government: Eat and Sleep in a Wig Wam

Just in time for summer roadtrip season, the Library of Congress posted this lovely picture of a still-standing roadside attraction on their Flickr page.

Cabins imitating the Indian teepee for tourists along highway south of Bardstown, Kentucky (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

Wigwam Village Cave City, KY from U.S. 31., originally uploaded by esywlkr.

village10, originally uploaded by Zapgun.

From the Wigwam Village No. 2 motel's website...

"... Wigwam Village Inn #2 was completed in 1937 in Cave City, and five more were built over time in Alabama, Florida, New Orleans, California, and Arizona. From the beginning, the Wigwam Villages were gathering places with an atmosphere of old-time neighborliness. The community area at the center of the circle of wigwams seemed to invite people to come and talk. Nowadays, our playground at the center of the teepees invites young folks to play and our new 16'x16' "Misting Deck" is a great way to cool off on a hot summer day - regardless of your age!...

...Of the seven original Wigwam Villages, only three remain: #2 in Cave City, Kentucky, #6 in Holbrook, Arizona. and #7 in Riallto, California..."

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Wigwam Village No. 2, Cave City, Kentucky
601 North Dixie Hwy
Cave City, Kentucky 42127
Google Map

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7 more Best Photographs from the Federal Government blog posts.

The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer - 8

House, Houston, Texas (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

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 the Federal Government has to Offer - 7

The Best Photographs/Art the Federal Government has to Offer - 6

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"20TH AIR FORCE, OKINAWA--A/2C Don W. Murray of Mazon, Ill., flashes a victory smile from the gun blister of his U.S. Air Force B-29 "Superfort" after shooting down a Communist jet fighter, ca. 11/1952"


"Construction of aircraft at the Glenn L. Martin plant at Baltimore, MD. Machine gun turrets are completely assembled and ched operated before installed in the carcass of PBM., 02/1943"


"Myriads of lights at the Long Beach, Calif., plant of Douglas Aircraft Company form pleasing star patterns in the shatterproof plexiglass windows of noses for A-20 attack bombers., ca. 10/1942"

All images found on the National Archive (U.S.) Archival Research Catalog

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The Best Photographs/Art the Federal Government has to Offer - 6

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The Best Photographs/Art the Federal Government has to Offer - 6

From the American Memories collection By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943.



"The By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 collection consists of 908 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress's collection of more than 900 is the largest. These striking silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters were designed to publicize health and safety programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. The posters were made possible by one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts and were added to the Library's holdings in the 1940s."

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From the poster's information page...

Stamp out syphilis and gonorrhea : Have you had your blood test and examination : Go to your doctor or Dept. of Health.

CREATED/PUBLISHED
NYC : Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project, [between 1936 and 1938]

SUMMARY
Poster encouraging blood testing and examinations to identify persons with syphilis and gonorrhea, showing a man pointing at the viewer.

NOTES
Date stamped on verso: Feb 9 1938.

Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress).

Bureau of Social Hygiene, 51 Stuyvesant Place, S.I.

SUBJECTS
Syphilis--New York (State)--New York--1930-1940.
Gonorrhea--New York (State)--New York--1930-1940.
Health care--New York (State)--New York--1930-1940.
Blood testing--New York (State)--New York--1930-1940.
Posters--1930-1940.
Screen prints--Color--1930-1940.

MEDIUM
1 print on board (poster) : silkscreen, color.

CALL NUMBER
POS - WPA - NY .01 .S73, no. 1

REPRODUCTION NUMBER
LC-USZC2-1119 DLC (color film copy slide)

REPOSITORY
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

DIGITAL ID

(color film copy slide) cph 3b49019 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b49019


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The picture above may not look like much. Just a couple of people none too fashionable, but like folk. Color photography has an immediacy that makes the images and people look less archival, less historical. Which is one of the most appealing aspects of Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943, from the The Library of Congress.

The following images were all found at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration website, using their ARC Records Search Engine. They look like old pictures and I love them for that.



"'Come on in...the snow's fine', girls of the NYA Federal Residence School take time out for a sun bath and to have their pictures taken, ca. 1936" Love the girl with the snowball.



"A top-notch mechanic, Mary Josephine Farley expertly rebuilds airplane engines. Although she is only twenty years old she has a private pilot's license and has made several cross-country flights., 08/1942"



"Training in marksmanship helps girls at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles, Calif., develop into responsible women. Part of Victory Corps activities there, rifle practice encourages girls to be accurate in handling firearms., 08/1942"

John Tucker Must Die, circa 1942

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This is the 4th edition of "The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer" and it's nice to have a local offering for the first time. The National Archives & Records Administration, Southeast Region Archives is located close to Atlanta, in nearby Morrow, GA. Their website has an online exhibition of images, including the one above, taken in 1951 and from documents from the Tennesee Valley Authority. Click the image for a slideshow of TVA images, and check out the exhibition page for more documents and pictures.

Note that NARA allows for copies of records to be made. So these pictures may all be available for purchase.

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The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer - 3

ARC Identifier: 554906
Title: ONE GIRL SMOKES POT WHILE HER FRIEND WATCHES DURING AN OUTING IN CEDAR WOODS NEAR LEAKEY, TEXAS. (TAKEN WITH PERMISSION) NEAR SAN ANTONIO. ONE OF NINE PICTURES, 05/1973

Creator: Environmental Protection Agency. (12/02/1970 - ) ( Most Recent)
Type of Archival Materials: Photographs and other Graphic Materials
Level of Description: Item from Record Group 412: Records of the Environmental Protection Agency, 1944 - 1999
Location: Still Picture Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road,
College Park
MD 20740-6001
PHONE: 301-837-3530
FAX: 301-837-3621
EMAIL: stillpix@nara.gov
Production Date: 05/1973
Part of: Series: DOCUMERICA: The Environmental Protection Agency's Program to Photographically Document Subjects of Environmental Concern, 1972 - 1977

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The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer - 2

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The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer - 2

Even though I am no mechanic, at one time I used to work with motorcycles every day. Not to fix them, but put them on display. The New York City-based Guggenheim Museum opened two satellite museums here in Vegas. It was all very daring, an oasis of culture where none existed before, or so the many people believed.

The first show in the large gallery was The Art of the Motorcycle. This was an amazing collection of privately owned motorcycles, art and innovation on wheels. I was on the crew that uncrated, cleaned, and placed the bikes on display. It was during this time that I met many of the art installer/artist friends that I have here in Vegas. Unfortunately, hubris towards attracting locals, low tourist attendance due to post 9-11 travel worries, and a lack of interest in general doomed the expensive venture, and it closed a year and a half later. Sometime in the near future I will post pictures of that exhibition.

In the meantime enjoy this picture, from the Library of Congress' American Memory website. If my dad and his friends rode motorcycles instead of going golfing, this is what I could see them doing. The online collections have loads of great images, audio files, and movies. There is the option of purchasing the images in the collection. To find this image and its page, go to the American Memories site, and search for "DN-0089272", the number noted at the bottom of this entry.

This picture makes me want to start a band so I can make this the cover art.

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CREATED/PUBLISHED
1929.

SUMMARY
Image of a policeman riding a motorcycle performing a jump on the field at Soldier Field, located at 1600 South Lake Shore Drive in the Near South Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, during practice for a police meet. Policemen are sitting on motorcycles on both sides of the policeman.

NOTES
This photonegative taken by a Chicago Daily News photographer may have been published in the newspaper.

Cite as: DN-0089272, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

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Neon Poisoning: The Best Photographs the Federal Government has to Offer - 1