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Selected pictures list
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Photo credit: Jon Sullivan, pdphoto.org
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Photo credit: Daniel Mayer
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The
Central Arizona Project Aqueduct is a diversion canal in
Arizona in the United States. The
aqueduct diverts water from the
Colorado River from
Lake Havasu City into central and southern Arizona.
The Central Arizona Project is a multipurpose water resource development and management project that was designed to provide water to nearly one million acres of Indian and non-Indian
irrigated agricultural land areas as well as
municipal water for several Arizona communities.
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Satellite image credit: NASA
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Photo credit: McPherson and Oliver Scars of a whipped slave named Peter, photo taken at
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863. In his own words, "Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped; he discharged the overseer." The slave pictured here escaped from a plantation in
Mississippi, made his way to Union forces, and joined the U.S. Army at the Union garrison located at Baton Rouge.
Slavery in the United States began soon after the
English colonists first settled in North America. From about the 1640s until 1865, people of African descent were legally enslaved within the boundaries of the present U.S. mostly by
whites, but also by a comparatively tiny number of
American Indians and free
blacks. By 1860, the slave population in the U.S. had grown to 4 million.
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Image credit: A.J. Connell Litho.
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Photo credit: Clarence Jack
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Map credit: Sir Thomas Hyde Page
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Photo credit: Johnson & Rogers
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A 1935 photo of a family of
migrant workers in
California, United States, during the
Great Depression. In the United States, the term "migrant worker" is commonly used to describe low-wage workers performing
manual labor in the
agriculture field. During the Great Depression,
Okies who fled the
Dust Bowl were a significant source of temporary farm labor. Outside the U.S., the modern definition of the term by the
United Nations includes anyone working outside of their home country.
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Photo credit: Rise Studio
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Lithographer: Joseph E. Baker; Restoration: Lise Broer
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Photo: Tech. Sgt. Cedric H. Rudisill, USAF
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The Great Presidential Puzzle
Artist: James Albert Wales; Lithography: Mayer, Merkel, & Ottmann; Restoration: Jujutacular
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This 1898 cartoon from
Puck depicts
Richard Croker, an American politician who was a leader of New York City's
Tammany Hall, as the sun, with politicians and people from various professions revolving around him. Croker's greatest political success was his bringing about the 1897 election of
Robert A. Van Wyck as first mayor of the five-
borough "greater" New York.
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The
1933 double eagle is a gold coin of the United States with a $20 face value. 445,500 specimens of this Saint-Gaudens
double eagle were
minted in 1933, the last year of production for the double eagle, but no specimens ever officially circulated, and nearly all were melted down due to the discontinuance of the domestic
gold standard in 1933. It currently holds the record for the highest price paid at
auction for a single U.S. coin, having been sold for
$7.59 million.
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The
Chicago Theatre is located on North
State Street in the
Loop area of
Chicago. When it opened on
October 26, 1921, the 3,880-seat theater was promoted as the "Wonder Theatre of the World". Its
marquee, "an unofficial emblem of the city", appears frequently in film, television, artwork, and photography.
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A pile of
American bison skulls, waiting to be ground for
fertilizer; a man stands atop the pile, with another in front of it. Bison, long a staple of
Plains Indian tribal culture, were aggressively
hunted by European settlers in the United States, nearly leading to the extinction of the species.
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Picture: Unknown; restoration: Mmxx
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A depiction of the
Boston Massacre, an incident on March 5, 1770, in which
British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others in
Boston, Massachusetts. Eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder, though all but two were acquitted; two soldiers were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to branding. During the era of discontent that led to the
American Revolution, this event was used for anti-British propaganda.
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Poster: J. Hale Powers & Co. Fraternity & Fine Art Publishers; restoration: Trialsanderrors An 1873 print promoting
the Grange, the oldest U.S. agricultural advocacy group with a national scope. In 2005 it had 160,000 members.
The central scene shows a farmer with one foot on his shovel, captioned "I Pay for All". From left to right, the top insets show a farmer's fireside and the Grange in session; the bottom ones show a harvest dance, a broken-down cabin signposted "Ignorance" and "Sloth", and a Biblical scene of the
gleaners Ruth and
Boaz.
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Engrossed copy of the United States Declaration of Independence
Document: Thomas Jefferson et al.
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Lithograph: Calvert Lithographing Company; restoration: Adam Cuerden A bird's-eye view showing approximately 3 square miles (8 km
2) of the central portion of the city of
Detroit, Michigan, c. 1889. At this time in the
city's history, it was a burgeoning home for manufacturing with expanding city limits. Waves of immigrants, predominantly from Europe, came to Detroit, opening businesses and establishing their own communities. However, infrastructure remained lacking; before 1889, only four of the city's roads were paved.
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Walt Whitman (1819–1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A
humanist, he was a part of the transition between
transcendentalism and
realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of
free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection
Leaves of Grass (first published in 1855, but continuously revised until Whitman's death), which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.
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A lithograph by
Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler showing the town of
New Kensington, Pennsylvania, in 1896. Originally part of Burrell (and later
Lower Burrell) Township, the city of New Kensington was founded in 1891. During the public sale held on June 10, 1891, thousands of people came to the area, including a number of investors, including the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which later became
Alcoa. The city continued to grow and, as of 2010, New Kensington has a population of 13,116.
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Vivian Malone entering
Foster Auditorium on June 11, 1963, to register for classes at the
University of Alabama through a crowd that includes photographers,
National Guard members, and Deputy U.S. Attorney General
Nicholas Katzenbach. During the
Stand in the Schoolhouse Door,
George Wallace, the
Democratic Governor of Alabama, stood at the door of the auditorium to try to block the entry of two black students, Malone and
James Hood. Intended by Wallace as a symbolic attempt to keep his inaugural promise of "
segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever", the stand ended when President
John F. Kennedy federalized the
Alabama National Guard and Guard General
Henry Graham commanded Wallace to step aside.
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Apollo 11 was the
spaceflight that
landed the first two humans, commander
Neil Armstrong and
LM pilot
Buzz Aldrin, on the
Moon. On July 21, 1969, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the Moon. This mission quickly captured the public's imagination and became
prominent in popular culture. Over 530 million viewers worldwide watched the Moon landing, and it received widespread newspaper coverage. For example, the July 21, 1969, edition of
The Washington Post—shown here—used the main headline "'The Eagle Has Landed'—Two Men Walk on the Moon". In subsequent years, the Moon landing has been frequently depicted or referenced in media, including in literature, films, and video games.
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A bird's eye view of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a 1902
lithograph by
Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler. At this point in its history, Pittsburgh was an industrial and commercial powerhouse, with extensive railroad connections to the rest of the United States. Together with the rest of
Allegheny County, it produced massive amounts of steel and steel products: by 1911 they reached 24% of the national output of
pig iron, 34% of
Bessemer steel, 44% of open hearth steel, 53% of
crucible steel, 24% of steel rail, and 59% of structural shape.
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Photograph: Chuck Kennedy
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John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) was an American statesman who served as a diplomat, minister and ambassador to foreign nations, and treaty negotiator,
United States Senator,
Congressman from
Massachusetts, and the
sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. Involved in negotiating the treaties of
Ghent,
1818, and
Adams–Onís, Adams has been called one of the United States' greatest diplomats and secretaries of state. As president, he sought to
modernize the American economy and promote education, paying off much of the
national debt despite being stymied by a Congress controlled by opponents and lacking patronage networks. Historians have
generally ranked him as an above-average president.
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Chester A. Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 21st
President of the United States from 1881 to 1885. Born in Vermont and raised in upstate New York, Arthur practiced law in New York City before serving as a
quartermaster general in the Civil War. He became active in the Republican party after the war, was elected vice president on the ticket of President
James A. Garfield, and assumed the presidency upon Garfield's
assassination six months into his presidency. He effected a
reform of the civil service during his presidency, as well as
navy reform and
an act to prohibit immigration by Chinese laborers and deny citizenship to those already in the US. Due to his poor health, Arthur did not seek a second term.
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The
Dust Bowl was a period of severe
dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. Drought and a failure to apply
dryland farming methods to prevent
wind erosion caused the phenomenon. The drought came in three waves, 1934, 1936, and 1939–1940, but some regions of the high plains experienced drought conditions for as many as eight years.
This photograph, titled
Broke, baby sick, and car trouble!, was taken by
Dorothea Lange in 1937 and depicts a Missouri migrant family's
jalopy stuck near Tracy, California.
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Map: Private Robert K. Sneden, mapmaker for Samuel P. Heintzelman's III Corps The
Battle of Malvern Hill was fought on July 1, 1862, between the Confederate
Army of Northern Virginia and the Union
Army of the Potomac. It was the final battle of the
Seven Days Battles during the
American Civil War, taking place on
Malvern Hill near the Confederate capital of
Richmond, Virginia. Including inactive reserves, more than fifty thousand soldiers from each side took part, using more than two hundred pieces of artillery and three warships. The battle resulted in a tactical victory for the Union side, but the Confederates claimed a strategic victory as the Union failed to go on to capture Richmond.
This is a map of the night's march undertaken by the Union forces after the battle.
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Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 16th
president of the United States from 1861 until
his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the
Civil War, its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. Born in Kentucky into a poor family, Lincoln educated himself and worked as a lawyer in Illinois before entering politics. A powerful orator and astute politician, Lincoln used his
Gettysburg Address to promote nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. He has been consistently
ranked as one of the greatest US presidents, by both scholars and the public.
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Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was the 26th
president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He had previously been the 33rd
governor of New York, from 1899 to 1900, and then the 25th
vice president of the United States, from March to September 1901. As a leader of the
Republican Party, he became a driving force for the
Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century. In 1912, he ran for a third term as president. When he
could not secure the Republican nomination, he formed
his own party, the
Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party, which drew enough votes away from the Republican nominee, incumbent President
William Howard Taft, to give their
Democratic opponent
Woodrow Wilson a
large victory in the electoral vote. Roosevelt was a distant cousin of the 32nd president,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the uncle of Franklin's wife
Eleanor Roosevelt. His face is depicted on
Mount Rushmore, alongside
George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson and
Abraham Lincoln.
This picture is a
line engraving of Roosevelt, produced around 1902 by the
Department of the Treasury's
Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a
BEP presentation album of the first 26 presidents.
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John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and
Founding Father who served as the second
president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the
American Revolution that achieved independence from
Great Britain, and he served as the first
vice president of the United States. Adams was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with many important figures in
early American history, including his wife and adviser,
Abigail. His letters and other papers serve as an important source of historical information about the era.
This picture is a
line engraving of Adams, produced around 1902 by the
Department of the Treasury's
Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a
BEP presentation album of the first 26 presidents.
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Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the
civil rights movement, best known for her pivotal role in the
Montgomery bus boycott. On December 1, 1955, in
Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected a bus driver's order to relinquish her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger after the whites-only section was filled, inspiring the African-American community to boycott the Montgomery buses for more than a year. Her act of defiance and the boycott became important symbols of the civil rights movement and resistance to
racial segregation. After her conviction for disorderly conduct, her appeal became bogged down in the state courts, but the federal Montgomery bus lawsuit,
Browder v. Gayle, succeeded in overturning bus segregation in November 1956. Upon her death, Parks became the first woman to
lie in honor in the
U.S. Capitol rotunda.
This photograph of Parks being fingerprinted was taken on February 22, 1956, when she was arrested again, along with 73 others, after a grand jury indicted 113 African Americans for organizing the Montgomery bus boycott.
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William Grant Still (1895–1978) was an American
composer of nearly 200 works, including five
symphonies and nine
operas. Often referred to as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers", Still was the first American composer to have an opera produced by the
New York City Opera. His first symphony, entitled
Afro-American Symphony, was until 1950 the most widely performed symphony composed by an American. Born in Mississippi, he grew up in
Little Rock, Arkansas, attended
Wilberforce University and
Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and was a student of
George Whitefield Chadwick and later
Edgard Varèse. Still was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony
orchestra and the first to have an opera performed on national television. Due to his close association and collaboration with prominent African-American literary and cultural figures, he is considered to be part of the
Harlem Renaissance movement.
This picture of Still was taken by
Carl Van Vechten in 1949; the photograph is in the collection of the
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
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Fractional currency, also referred to as
shinplasters, was introduced by the
United States federal government following the outbreak of the
Civil War. These low-
denomination banknotes of the
U.S. dollar were in use between 21 August 1862 and 15 February 1876; they were issued in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50
cents across five issuing periods. The notes could be redeemed by the
U.S. Postal Service for the face value in
postage stamps.
This picture shows a third-issue fifty-cent fractional currency note (one of three variants of this denomination), issued by the United States Department of the Treasury between 5 December 1864 and 16 August 1869, featuring a portrait of Francis E. Spinner, then treasurer of the United States, on the obverse. This banknote is in the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
Other denominations:
- 3¢
- 5¢
- 10¢
- 25¢
- 50¢ (II)
- 50¢ (III)
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Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th
president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1849, until his death in office the following year. He was previously a career officer in the
United States Army, rose to the rank of
major general and became a national hero as a result of his victories in the
Mexican–American War. As a result, he
won election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs.
On July 4, 1850, Taylor reportedly consumed copious amounts of raw fruit and iced milk while attending holiday celebrations during a fundraising event at the
Washington Monument. Over the course of several days, he became severely ill with an unknown digestive ailment, several of his cabinet members being similarly affected. Despite treatment, Taylor died five days later. His vice-president
Millard Fillmore assumed the presidency and completed his term in office.
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James A. Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th
president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881, until his death
by assassination six and a half months later. He had been shot at the
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., on July 2 that year by
Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker. According to some historians, Garfield might have survived his wounds had the doctors attending him had at their disposal today's medical research and techniques. Instead, they probed the wound with unsterilized fingers and equipment, trying to locate the bullet, and the resulting infection was a significant factor in his death.
This picture is a
line engraving of Garfield, produced around 1902 by the
Department of the Treasury's
Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a
BEP presentation album of the first 26 presidents, which was reportedly given to Treasury Secretary
Lyman J. Gage.
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William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth
president of the United States in 1841. He died of
typhoid,
pneumonia or
paratyphoid fever 31 days into his term, becoming the first president to die in office. His death sparked a brief
constitutional crisis regarding succession to the presidency. Vice President
John Tyler claimed a
constitutional mandate to become the new president and took the presidential oath of office, setting an important precedent for an orderly transfer of the presidency and its full powers when the previous president fails to complete the elected term.
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Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh
president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He has been widely revered in the United States as an advocate for democracy and the common man, but many of his actions proved divisive, garnering both fervent support and strong opposition from different sectors of society. His reputation has suffered since the 1970s, largely due to his pivotal role in the forcible removal of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands; however,
surveys of historians and scholars have ranked Jackson favorably among U.S. presidents.
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Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 22nd and 24th
president of the United States, the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office (1885–1889 and 1893–1897). His victory in the
1884 presidential election made him the first successful Democratic nominee since the start of the
Civil War. He won praise for his honesty, self-reliance, integrity, and commitment to the principles of
classical liberalism, and was renowned for fighting political corruption, patronage, and
bossism.
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Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh
president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He has been widely revered in the United States as an advocate for democracy and the common man, but many of his actions proved divisive, garnering both fervent support and strong opposition from different sectors of society. His reputation has suffered since the 1970s, largely due to his pivotal role in the forcible removal of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands; however,
surveys of historians and scholars have ranked Jackson favorably among U.S. presidents.
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Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 22nd and 24th
president of the United States, the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office (1885–1889 and 1893–1897). His victory in the
1884 presidential election made him the first successful Democratic nominee since the start of the
Civil War. He won praise for his honesty, self-reliance, integrity, and commitment to the principles of
classical liberalism, and was renowned for fighting political corruption, patronage, and
bossism.
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Photograph credit: Andre m
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The
half eagle is a
United States coin that was produced for circulation from 1795 to 1929 and in commemorative and bullion coins since the 1980s. Composed almost entirely of gold, it has a face value of five
dollars. It was the first gold coin to be minted by the United States, its production being authorized by the
Coinage Act of 1792. The design and composition of the half eagle changed many times over the years, but this version was designed by John Reich and produced from 1807 to 1812. The obverse design depicts a round-capped portrait of
Liberty facing to the left, and the reverse depicts a modified eagle. For the first time, "5 D." is included on the reverse to indicate the value of the coin.
Other designs:
- 1795
- 1795–1798
- 1797
- 1807–1812
- 1813–1834
- 1813–1834 (alt)
- 1834–1838
- 1839–1866
- 1866
- 1908–1929
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Photograph credit: Unknown Bessie Coleman (1892–1926) was a
civil aviator. On June 15, 1921, she became the first African-American woman and the first Native American to earn an aviation pilot's license. Denied opportunity in the United States because of her race and sex, she had to go to France to learn to fly. Her career involved stunt flying and performing in
air shows, and was cut short in 1926 when she was thrown from a plane in mid-air. Her death meant that her ambition to establish a school for young black aviators went unaccomplished, but her pioneering achievements served as an inspiration for a generation of African-American men and women.
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Jane Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, singer, and model who became one of Hollywood's leading
sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. This publicity still, depicting Russell reclining on a bed of hay and holding a pistol, was taken by
George Hurrell for her film debut in
Howard Hughes's film
The Outlaw (1943), which launched her career. She went on to star in more than twenty films, including opposite
Marilyn Monroe in the hugely successful
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
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Helen Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She lost her sight and hearing after a bout of illness at the age of nineteen months. When she was seven years old, she met her first teacher and life-long companion,
Anne Sullivan, who taught her language skills, including reading and writing. After attending
Radcliffe College at
Harvard University, she became the first
deafblind person to earn a
Bachelor of Arts degree. She worked for the
American Foundation for the Blind for many years, during which time she toured the United States and traveled to 35 countries around the world. This 1920 photograph depicts Keller examining a
magnolia flower.
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Bryce Canyon National Park is an
American national park located in southwestern
Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural
amphitheaters along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. This panoramic view, as seen from Inspiration Point, shows the colorful
Claron Formation, from which the park's delicate
hoodoos are carved; the sediments were laid down in a system of streams and lakes that existed from 63 to about 40 million years ago (from the
Paleocene to the
Eocene epochs). The brown, pink and red colors are from
hematite, the yellows from
limonite, and the purples from
pyrolusite.
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Artists producing
art and engraving on United States banknotes began experimenting with copper plates as an alternative to
wood engraving in the early 18th century. Applied to the production of paper currency, copper-plate engraving, and later
steel engraving, enabled banknote design and printing to rapidly advance during the 19th century. This vignette, engraved by W. W. Rice, appeared on certain
United States fifty-dollar bills issued in 1875. Produced for the
Department of the Treasury's
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the engraving is of
Robert Walter Weir's painting
Embarkation of the Pilgrims, which hangs in the
United States Capitol rotunda. It depicts the
Pilgrims on the deck of the ship
Speedwell as they depart
Delfshaven in South Holland on July 22, 1620. They met additional colonists at
Southampton, England, and transferred to the
Mayflower before sailing to the New World.
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Photograph credit: James & Bushnell; restored by Adam Cuerden
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Photograph credit: Aaron Allmon II
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Pauline Adams (1874–1957) was an Irish-American
suffragist. On 4 September 1917, she and twelve other activists were arrested for attempting to "flaunt their banners" in front of President
Woodrow Wilson's reviewing stand before a Selective Service parade in
Washington, D.C., and they chose prison rather than paying a 25-dollar fine. This photograph depicts Adams seated at a table, wearing prison uniform and holding a cup in her raised right hand. The image was published in the newspaper
The Suffragist in 1919.
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Illustration credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva
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Martha Ann Honeywell (1786–1856) was an American disabled artist who produced silhouettes and paper-cutout images using only her mouth, arm stumps and toes, often in public performances. She sold cutouts such as this one as souvenirs. The text at the center of this cutout, with framed dimensions of
8+1⁄4 in ×
7+5⁄8 in (21 cm × 19 cm), is the standard text of the
Lord's Prayer, signed underneath with the inscription "Written without hands by Martha Honeywell". The work is now in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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Archive
Portal:United States/Selected picture/21
Scars of a
whipped Mississippi
slave Photo taken: (April 2, 1863) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. Original caption: "Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped; he discharged the overseer. The very words of poor Peter, taken as he sat for his picture."