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U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection

Searching & Viewing the Collection

A growing proportion of the U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection can be viewed online, but much more is available on site. Provided below is information about what can be viewed online and how on-site researchers locate and view relevant contact sheets.

Reading Room File of Contact Sheets

For comprehensive searching an on-site visit is needed. The collection is housed in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room, where patrons serve themselves after a brief orientation. The collection is organized by “job” number, which provides a rough form of chronological access to the images reproduced in contact sheets (photographic prints that reproduce multiple negatives or 35-millimeter negative strips on a single sheet). Captions accompanying contact sheets identify the subject, job number, photographer's initials, and date of the job. Magnifying glasses are available upon request to help in viewing small 35 mm. frames on the contact sheets. Some envelopes also include larger proof prints that the magazine used in their editorial processes, which lends evidence about their selection process and also enables viewing enlargements of selected frames from the contact sheet.

U.S. News & World Report Collection Card Catalog

Subject access to the reading room file is provided by a card index created by U.S. News & World Report staff. Entries in the index include:

  • proper names
  • geographic places (states and most cities in the United States are found under U.S.--[state])
  • somewhat variable topical terms such as “People--Families” or “Negroes--Segregation”

U.S. News & World Report Logbook

Also in the reading room is a copy of the U.S. News & World Report logbook, which lists the photography assignments by assignment ("job") number, roughly in chronological order. The logbook also indicates with an "X" those jobs that did not arrive with the collection when it came to the Library of Congress.

Selected Images Online

Further Information