TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Illuminating Photography: From Camera Obscura to Camera Phone
The origins of the cameras we use today were invented in the 19th century. Or were they? A millenia before, Arab scientist Alhazen was using the camera obscura to duplicate images, with Leonardo da Vinci following suit 500 years later...
US Navy
Naval History and Heritage Center: Captain Joy Bright Hancock
A site from the Naval Historical Center provides biographical information on Joy Bright Hancock (1898-1986), champion for women in the Armed Services.
A&E Television
History.com: How Photos From the Battle of Antietam Revealed the American Civil War's Horrors
In October 1862, a shocking and unique photo exhibition opened at Mathew B. Brady's Broadway gallery in New York City. A small placard at the door advertised "The Dead of Antietam," and, as The New York Times reported on October 20,...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Timothy O'sullivan, Ancient Ruins in the Canon De Chelle
View photographs and read about the historical works of Timothy O'Sullivan in this essay.
George Eastman Museum
Photographs of the Great Depression
These images walk a fine line between documentary photography and propaganda. Nonetheless, they tell a story of a dark period in American history.
Library of Congress
Loc: Popular Photographic Print Processes
This link is designed in a historic presentation to explain the various processes and functions of photography.
George Eastman Museum
Eastmanhouse: Inventors in Imaging Technologies
See how George Eastman, Thomas Edison, and Wilhelm Roentgen impacted American film history and had inventions that were interrelated.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: William Henry Fox Talbot
The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides this informative page on William Henry Fox Talbot(1800-1877)and the invention of photography. With information and pictures this in a nice resource for study.
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Child Labor in America
Historical photographs provide students with a firsthand look at the issue of child labor during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. In this lesson plan, students will use photographs to further understanding of the...
Other
Museum of the Moving Image: Optical Room
Take a tour through the history of moving images from the earliest times into the mid-1910s. The tour begins with pre-cinema devices and practices, including shadow plays and optical toys, and covers film and photography pioneers and...
Library of Congress
Loc: America's First Look Into the Camera (Daguerreotypes)
A searchable database from the Library of Congress that provides a fascinating look into the history of photography from 1839-1864. There are images from the Matthew Brady Studio and studio portraits by black photographers James P. Ball...
Other
Photogravure: Art of the Photogravure
Comprehensive resource about the intaglio process of photogravure, compiled and maintained by photographer Mark Katzman. Extensively illustrated account of the history of the art form, along with many useful sidebars on key artists...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Magazine Migrant Madonna
An article by Rebecca Maksel that delves into the mystery of the woman in the famous photograph by Dorothea Lange. The history of the photograph is revealed as is the woman's identity.
Georgia State University
Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Holography
A definition and explanation of holography. Explains the process of making holograms and discusses the history and properties of holograms.
South Carolina Educational Television
Etv: Visual and Performing Arts: Media Arts
Take a one-minute tour through the history of media arts. Examine a variety of media forms and be a media critic. Visit the Media Studio and learn about movie soundtracks, animation, and creating a storyboard. Meet different artists as...
Smithsonian Institution
Tween Tribune: Week of 6 13 16: Yellowstone, Then and Now
Boulders shift. Canyons erode. Old trees fall. New ones grow. And tourists crowd Yellowstone National Park. The length of their vacations is barely any time at all in the stream of history.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Atlanta: National Register of Historic Places
Explore Atlanta by visiting a number of historic sites in this fascinating city. Each highlighted site features commentary on historic significance and eye catching photography. At the bottom of each page you see links to four essays...
PBS
Who Made America?: George Eastman
A quick "snapshot" at the life and worldly contributions of George Eastman. See why he was chosen as one of America's great innovators and better understand how his photography processes transformed our society.
George Eastman Museum
George Eastman House: How to Make a Camera Obscura [Pdf]
Resource provides history and background information about the camera obscura. There are also easy to follow instructions for you to make your own version of the camera obscura to better understand the history and technology behind...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Stieglitz, the Steerage
The photograph "The Steerage" by Alfred Stieglitz would become one of the most important in the history of photography. View the picture and read the story behind the photograph.
The Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute: A Century of Development
The Franklin Institute looks at the invention of the Brownie camera, which helped put photography into the hands of amateurs and allowed the middle class to take their own snapshots as well in the early 20th century.
University of Texas at Austin
U of Texas: Photojournalism and the American Presidency
The University of Texas, Austin, explores photojournalism with images of recent American presidents and their times. Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton are shown.
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery: Zaida Ben Yusuf: New York Portrait Photographer
Exhibit documents the life and work of early twentieth-century New York portrait photographer Zaida Ben-Yusuf, who broke with many of the conventions of portraiture and, thereby, attracted the attention of prominent artistic, literary,...
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery: Mathew Brady's Portraits
Exhibition of photographic portraits taken by Civil War-era photographer Mathew Brady, who made portraits of many illustrious Americans on both sides of the conflict before, during, and after the war. Includes an animated explanation of...