Searching & Viewing

J. C. Crosby, Falk Photo Co. *Officers and crew, U.S.S. Mount Vernon, October 30, 1918.* 1918. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.

Searching for ships by name is usually straightforward but a few tips could help you locate images more easily. We are more likely to have photos of larger or more prominent ships. Ships can be found in several of our news photo collections, so ships that were newsworthy have a better chance of being found. You'll have more luck finding battleships and ocean liners rather than smaller ships that operated in a limited area.

Searching and Viewing Online

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
You can search for digitized images in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. Below are some suggestions for searching the online catalog for ship images. Keep in mind that we do have images that are not scanned, so if you can't find a picture you can submit an Ask-A-Librarian question.
- Captions of photos don't always include the ship's prefix, i.e. SS, USS, RMS. This can make searching more difficult if the ship has a generic name that overlaps with other searches such as the USS North Carolina or the SS Arabic. In those cases do a search first with the prefix and ship name, then do another search without the prefix but adding the word ship, i.e. USS Iowa and Iowa ship. Many (but not all) of the ship photos have the term "ship" either in the title, the summary, or as a subject heading. Another way to narrow down results if you are getting too many is to include the type of ship in the search string. We don't always identify the type of ship but in some cases the catalog record includes terms like battleship, cruiser, ocean liner, steamer, steamship, etc.
- We are more likely to have photos of military ships that were taken during wartime. The majority of these will be US ships, but there are some allied and enemy ships in the collection. Military ships rarely have their ship number listed in the catalog, i.e. USS Indiana - BB 58. The most numerous will be found under Civil War, World War I (which has the subject heading World War 1914-1918), and World War II (which has the subject heading World War, 1939-1945).
- When searching for ocean liners it can sometimes help to search by the name of the company, i.e. Cunard, Red Star Lines, Norddeutscher Lloyd/North German Lloyd, etc.
- Keep in mind that multiple ships may have the same name. Generic names were often used on many ships (i.e. America) while the military sometimes reuses the names of ships are are no longer in service. Use the date, location, and other information found in the record to help determine which ship is shown.

Searching Using Card Catalogs in the Reading Room

In the Prints & Photographs Reading Room several card catalogs can aid in finding images of ships. The Divisional Catalog can be used to find groups of ship images. These groups will overlap with the LOTs found in the online catalog. The Ship Index lists the names of many ships, mostly from the second half of the 1800's. The Specific Subject Index lists ships from the New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection (these materials are stored off site, so folder titles need to be requested in advance) as well as others found throughout the collections. Reference staff will be happy to explain the process for requesting and viewing materials from different collections.

Further Information

Basic Camera Copying in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room
An explanation of the conditions under which camera copying can be done in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room.
Library of Congress Duplication Services
Includes products and pricing information, as well as an order form and customer service contact information.
Rights and Restrictions Information
Provides general information about rights and Library of Congress general policy on permissions, and list of rights statements for specific artists, organizations and collections.

Prints and Photographs Reading Room
Submit a question through our Ask a Librarian service, call the Research Center at (202) 707-6394, or visit us in person in Room LM 337 of the James Madison building in Washington, D.C. Learn more about conducting research in this reading room and remotely.

Ships: Navigating for Images at the Library of Congress

Prints & Photographs: Ask a Librarian

Searching & Viewing

Searching and Viewing Online

Searching Using Card Catalogs in the Reading Room

Further Information