Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections
Housed on the lowest level of Kroch Library, the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections is open by appointment for research Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm, and on some Saturday afternoons. Please consult their web site for specific hours. This is Cornell's largest collection of archival and rare book materials. While books are listed in the library catalog, archival collections are described at the collection (rather than at the item) level, and many have further details on collection contents and arrangement listed on finding guides. Notable photography collections described here.
Researchers must register to use the Rare collections. To register: Fill out this online form, then bring a photo ID to the RMC Reference Desk when you come in to do your research.
Cornell's Collections
The Cornell University Library and the Johnson Museum of Art have digitized some of their many collections and made them available online. Here are a few collections of Cornell-held photographic materials that are available to peruse online:
- H. F. Johnson Museum of Art
Includes photographs held at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. (subset of the entire collection). - Images from Cornell's Rare Book and Archival CollectionsA growing collection digital reproductions of images from the general collections of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. Images are drawn from a variety of rare book collections, as well as the University Archives and other manuscript collections.
- International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Photographs
Founded in 1900, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) grew in scope, size, and influence to become a powerful force in American organized labor. Representing workers in the women's garment industry, the ILGWU worked to improve the working and living conditions of its members. Photographs document the workers, the industry, the shops, and factories, as well as the union, its leadership, members, and activities. - New York Call Photographs
The socialist daily New York Call was founded in 1908 in New York City and continued in publication until 1923 circulating works by Eugene Debs, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Robert Minor, Kate Richards O'Hare, Margaret Sanger, Agnes Smedley, Rose Pastor Stokes, Norman Thomas and others. Photographic documentation includes workers' living conditions, small garment shops and factories, labor actions, labor leaders, and public figures. - Human Ecology Photographs
Sampling from the Cornell University College of Human Ecology Historical Photographs Collection. - Andrew Dickson White Architectural PhotographsNineteenth- and early twentieth-century photographs of American, European and Middle Eastern architecture and sculpture that were used to teach art and architecture students at Cornell in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Harry Weintraub Collection of Gay-related PhotographsProvides a wide view of men's bodies and gay men's lives, styles, and activities from the 1850s onwards through thousands of photographs.
- Historic Glacial Images of Alaska & GreenlandCornell professor Ralph Stockman Tarr (1864-1912) and his students and collaborators organized several expeditions to glaciated areas in Greenland and Alaska. About 2,000 of their photographs have been digitized for the study of glacier change over time.
- Icelandic & Faroese Photos of Frederic WW HowellThe British artist, photographer and traveler Frederick W.W. Howell recorded Icelandic and Faroese landscapes, farmsteads, towns and people in a remarkable series of photographs that depicted Iceland and the Faeroe Islands ca. 1900. Also includes a small group of photographs by Henry A. Perkins, an American, and Magnús Ólafsson, an Icelander.
- Joe Conzo, Jr. Hip Hop PhotographsCalled “The man who took Hip-Hop’s baby pictures” by the New York Times, Joe Conzo captured images of the South Bronx between 1976 and 1984, including early hip hop jams, street scenes, and Latin music performers and events. The Cornell Hip Hop Collection preserves and has digitized Joe Conzo negatives, more than 6,000 of which are freely available to search and browse here.
- Loewentheil Collection of African-American PhotographsDonated by Stephen and Beth Loewentheil, the collection features 645 rare images documenting a century’s-worth of African American life, from the 1860s to the 1960s. The collection's strength is in its images of everyday life for average African Americans, most of whom are unidentified. They are shown at work, posing with family members for portraits, and at special occasions such as baptisms.
- New York State Aerial PhotographsHistorical aerial photographs of the state of New York, ca. 1936-1966, 1980, 1991.
- Postcards of female and male impersonators and cross-dressing in Europe and the United States, 1900-1931, 1955This collection of Postcards of female and male impersonators and cross-dressing in Europe and the United States, 1900-1931, 1955 features copies of original postcards held by Cornell’s Human Sexuality Collection, part of Cornell Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.
- Stereoscopic Photos from Iceland213 stereoscopic printed images taken by the photographer Magnús Ólafsson (1862-1937) and his studio in Reykjavík. The images date from before ca. 1918; a few bear caption dates of 1910 or 1911.
- The J. R. Sitlington Sterrett Collection of Archaeological PhotographsJohn Robert Sitlington Sterrett (1851-1914) was appointed Professor of Greek at Cornell in 1901. During the previous decades he had traveled throughout Greece, Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, studying the inscriptions, monuments, and historical geography of the region. In 1907-8, he undertook the "Cornell Expedition to Asia Minor and the Assyro-Babylonian Orient." In 1918, Sterrett's widow gave his collection of archaeological photographs to the Cornell University Library, including hundreds of images taken by Sterrett's frequent companion in his travels, the pioneering archaeological photographer John Henry Haynes (1849-1910). The Sterrett collection also preserves photographs made by the Cornell Expedition of 1907-8.
- U.S. President's Railroad Commission PhotographsThe U.S. Presidential Railroad Commission was established by Executive Order No. 10891 of November 1, 1960, to consider a controversy between carriers represented by the Eastern, Western, and Southeastern Carriers' Conference Committees and railroad employees. A number of the photographs were entered into evidence by the unions, but not all of them were used. In this collection, the U.S. President's Railroad Commission Photographs, both evidentiary photographs and those not used in the proceeding are gathered together to present a remarkably complete picture of the railroad industry and the surrounding American towns, cities, and countryside serviced by the railroads.
- Vicos CollectionIn the first decades after World War II, Cornell University sponsored applied social science research at Hacienda Vicos in the Callejon de Huaylas region of Peru. The Cornell-Peru Program was designed to help the families who resided on the hacienda (Vicosinos) make the transition from serfdom to Peruvian citizenship. The photographs in this collection document the project.
- Willard D. Straight in KoreaThis collection includes about 380 photographs and a few sketches that Cornell alumnus and diplomat Willard Straight made during his two stays in Korea in 1904 and 1905. This project is a visual and contextual narrative of Korea at a most critical juncture in its more recent, modern history. The photographs document landscapes, urban scenes, people (both common, notable or noble ones), and, most interestingly, record numerous important events. These images together offer a unique view of the country, and a rare insight into a Korea during the very early twentieth century.
- Mellon Teaching SetsThese photographs from Cornell's collections were developed as part of the 2017–2022 project "Crossing the Photographic Divide: Mining and Making Meaning." Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the project focused on researching the photography holdings of Cornell University Library and the Johnson Museum of Art and launching new initiatives focused on levying photographs from both collections in teaching, scholarship, and exhibitions on campus.
Cameras in the Archives
Victorian Spy Camera Watch, by Brett Jordan. Source: Flickr.
Archival material cannot typically be checked out or interlibrary loaned, and usually not photocopied or scanned (except by a staff member, and for a fee). However, many archival institutions will allow you to take photos of pages.