Prints and Photographs Online Catalog

For this assignment, I first sat and thought of some events and eras in history that have greatly altered my daily life. I wanted to search for something that has both a meaning and sentimental connection to my life. I enjoy politics so I decided women's suffrage would be an apt search.

When I first went to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Collection, I searched "women's suffrage." There were 309 results returned which was really too many to go through. There were results from suffrage in Japan, Turkey, France, and more--not exactly what I was searching for. I was hoping to find women suffragists actively working to secure the vote for women in America.

I decided to narrow the search to "Women's Suffrage, Columbus." There were only four results, and only one really showed women suffragists in action in Columbus. I then expanded my search to"Women's Suffrage, Ohio." I was surprised that this only produced seven results; however, one result was just what I was looking for. There was a picture the suffrage headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. There is a sign that reads, "Come and Learn Why Women Ought to Vote," which I thought was spectacular.

Because I could not find many Ohio-specific suffragist photographs, I also searched for some events I knew Ohio suffragists would have taken place in. I searched "Women Suffrage March" to find women marching in protest (48 results), "Women First Vote" to see photographs of the first official election women were allowed to participate in (15 results), "Suffragist Meetings" to view one of the semi-regular meetings held (3 results), "Women Suffrage Meeting" (13 results), "Suffrage Convention" (10 results). I also search "Harriet Taylor Upton" because I knew she was a prominent player in women's suffrage in Ohio and I hoped this would produce some photograph of that era that had no been previously returned.

I was fairly happy with my results. It is easier to sort through 5-10 photographs to find a few usable one than it is to sort through 500. However, I was had hoped that there would be more usable photos. Many of the images returned when searching with terms like "Ohio" or "Columbus" just feature people who were originally from Ohio--the photographs themselves were not necessarily taken in Ohio or showed Ohio events. Additionally, in the age of Google, I am used to dozens of different images to choose from when I search a term like Harriet Taylor Upton, not three.

I should note, however, that overall the database is quite impressive. After all, I found multiple usable pictures from the early 1900s and some from the late 1800s, and it was not as if I had searched something as generic as Rome. Because of the LOC catalog, I was able to create a folio of original photographs of an incredibly important era in United States history.

See all of my photos here: http://delicious.com/jnkreager