Related Resources

The following are additional resources that promote the study of popular graphic arts.

Prints & Photographs Division

Note: This is a listing of collections with 200 or more items. For additional items, consult the online catalog, searching by artist, publisher, or process (e.g., chromolithographs).

Advertising Prints

Advertising Poster Collection
Summary description of posters created to advertise many kinds of events and consumable products; some are billboard sheets.
Advertising posters (online items)
Items that have been digitized and described individually, the resutls of a search for the call number "POS - ADV".
Patent medicine labels and advertisements - LOT 10632 (H)
Summary description of a group of more than 400 labels.
Miscellaneous specimens of American job printing - LOT 4121 (H)
Summary description of advertising matter, etc., from 1870-1900, assembled as part of a German study collection.
Miscellaneous samples of German advertising cards and booklets - LOT 3532 (F)
Summary description of printed items, ca. 1880-1925.
Album of labels, trade cards, and package enclosures, American and European, used for advertising - LOT 3712 (H)
Summary of printed items created ca. 1900.
Album of chromo-lithographs - LOT 3407 (H)
Summary of group of prints chiefly by Geo. S. Harris and Sons, Philadelphia; Heffron and Phelps, N.Y.; L. E. Neumann and Co., N.Y., ca. 1885.
Cigarette cards, 1890-1910 - LOT 3932 (J)
Summary of group of cards issued chiefly by Allen and Gintner of Richmond, Va.
American cigar labels - Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2014:189
Summary of group consisting of 533 bound volumes of progressive proof prints for cigar labels made by the American Lithographic Co. and Schmidt & Co. An appointment must be made in advance to request to view (contact us through our Request Form)
Patent Office advertising prints and labels, 1874-1928 - Unprocessed in PR 06 CN 660,
Summary description of more than 187,000 prints. An appointment must be made in advance to request to view (contact us through our Request Form).

Cartoon Prints

British Cartoon Prints - PC 1, PC2, PC 3 (search and view)
Collection of British cartoons and caricatures acquired in 1921 from Windsor Castle.
American Cartoon Prints - PC/US (search and view)
More than 500 prints made in America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries encompassing several forms of political art, including political satires, caricatures, and allegories.

Historical Prints

Hauslab Album - LOT 14117 (H)(OSE))
Summary description of 257 copper engravings collected by Franz Ritter von Hauslab (1798-1883), focusing on European armed conflicts. Because of the fragility of the items, please consult photographic copies in LOT 4601 (F) prior to requesting originals.
Hecht Collection of European Bilderbogen - Unprocessed – PR 13 CN 2009:039
Summary of more than 8,000 items dating 1848-1919. Some bound items have been processed. Others are available by advance appointment.
Pictorial Americana
This web version of a 1955 publication features many popular graphic arts items, particularly demonstrating how the medium was used in the 19th century to depict historical events of earlier eras.

Geography & Map Division

Panoramic Maps
Similar to bird’s-eye view prints in the Popular Graphic Arts Collection, the general convention in the Library of Congress is that items that include street names are considered to be maps.

Rare Book & Special Collections Division

Printed Ephemera Collection (including Broadsides)
More than 25,000 items, including single-sheet publications from Europe and the Americas (with the vast majority from the United States) dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. A large portion are available online.

A number of organizations throughout the United States hold popular graphic arts materials or information about them. Listed below are repositories with substantial collections and organizations that focus on such materials.

Repositories

California

Delaware

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library External

Massachusetts

Michigan

University of Michigan - William L. Clements Library Graphics Division External

Missouri

Missouri History Museum Photographs and Prints External

New York

Collector Organizations

The following works provide information on the history of popular graphic arts and major producers of such materials.

Books

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Currier and Ives, A Catalogue Raisonne by C. Carter Smith (Editor); Cathy Cashion (Editor); Bernard Reilly (Introduction by)
Call Number: NE2312.C8 A4 1983a
ISBN: 0810316382
Published/Created: 1984-08-01
Lists prints by title and institutions that hold each print. The American Historical Print Collectors Society maintains a list of Currier & Ives Prints not noted in the Gale Catalog -- see the section on American Historical Print Collectors Society online publications below.
Picturing America, 1497-1899 by Gloria Gilda Deák
Call Number: N8214.5.U6 D43 1988
ISBN: 0691039992
Published/Created: 1988-11-21
Gloria Gilda Deak's comprehensive documentation of over a thousand maps, drawings, and urban views, selected from the New York Public Library's notable collection of Americana.
Prints and Printmaking by Antony Griffiths
Call Number: NE400 .G74 1996
ISBN: 0520207149
Published/Created: 1996-09-01
The Color Explosion by Jay T. Last
Call Number: NE2303.7 .L37 2005
ISBN: 0914589113
Published/Created: 2006-01-30
The Democratic Art by Peter Marzio
Call Number: NE2505 .M38
ISBN: 0879232900
Published/Created: 1979-09-01
Popular Prints of the Americas by A. Hyatt Mayor
Call Number: NE501 .M38 1973
ISBN: 0517506017
Published/Created: 1973-01-01
American Printmaking, the First 150 Years by Museum of Graphic Art
Call Number: NE505 .M8
Published/Created: 1969
Aspects of American Printmaking, 1800-1950 by James F. O'Gorman (Editor)
Call Number: NE507 .A87 1988
ISBN: 0815624271
Published/Created: 1988-08-01
Papers presented at the North American Print Conference (17th : 1985 : Boston, Mass.)
America on Stone by Harry T. Peters
Call Number: NE2303.7 .P47 1976
ISBN: 0405077033
Published/Created: 1977-03-01
California on Stone by Harry T. Peters
Call Number: NE2310.C2 P4 1976
ISBN: 0405077041
Published/Created: 1977-03-01
Early American Lithography by Sally Pierce; Catharina Slautterback; Georgia B. Barnhill; American Antiquarian Society Staff
Call Number: NE2303.7 .P54 1997
ISBN: 0934552649
Published/Created: 1997-01-01
Philadelphia on Stone by Erika Piola (Editor)
Call Number: NE2311.P5 P49 2012
ISBN: 9780271052526
Published/Created: 2012-10-22
Catalog of American Political Prints in the Library of Congress, 1766-1876 by Library of Congress Staff; Bernard Reilly (Introduction by)
Call Number: E183.3 .R45 1991
ISBN: 0816104441
Published/Created: 1991-02-01
Views and Viewmakers of Urban America by John W. Reps
Call Number: Z5961.U5 R46 1984
ISBN: 0826204163
Published/Created: 1984-04-01
A catalog of lithographs of American and Canadian cities.
Washington on View by John W. Reps
Call Number: F195 .R34 1991
ISBN: 0807819484
Published/Created: 1991-11-01
Fanny Palmer by Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein; Diann Benti (Editor)
Call Number: NE2312.P36 R83 2018
ISBN: 9780815610953
Published/Created: 2018-08-09
A History of Chromolithography: Printed Colour for All by Michael Twyman
Published/Created: 2013
Posada's Mexico by Ronnie C. Tyler; Library of Congress Staff (Contribution by); Amon Carter Museum of Western Art Staff (Contribution by); Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Staff (Contribution by)
Call Number: NE546.P6 A4 1979
ISBN: 0844403156
Published/Created: 1979-01-01
Prints of the West by Ron Tyler; Library of Congress Library of Congress
Call Number: NE962.W48 T96 1994
ISBN: 1555911749
Published/Created: 1994-08-31

American Historical Print Collectors Society Online Publications

The American Historical Print Collectors Society publishes works relating to popular graphic arts:

Currier & Ives Newly Recorded Prints List External
A list of Currier & Ives prints not included in the standard Currier & Ives print reference guides: Frederick Conningham’s Currier & Ives Prints: An Illustrated Checklist (1983) or the Gale Research Group’s Currier & Ives: A Catalogue Raisonne (1984).
Recommended Reference Works External
"A selection from the many excellent books and magazines which deal with historical American prints. Many of these publications contain thorough bibliographies that provide useful guidance for further reading in a particular area."

Popular Graphic Art Prints at the Library of Congress (1600s-1970s)

Prints & Photographs: Ask a Librarian