Famous photographs
Boulevard du Temple by Louis Daguerre
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The first photograph including humans
The Valley of the Shadow of Death by Roger Fenton
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Part of the first series of photographs documenting war. Fenton moved the public with his representation of the desolation in the wake of war.
Cathedral Rock, Yosemite by Carleton Watkins
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One of the early powerful photographs encouraging land preservation. In 1864 President Lincoln signed the grant for Yosemite National Park.
The Dead of Antietam by Alexander Gardener
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The first photograph of war casualties shown to the public. It rocked a society that had glorified war for so long by showing dead bodies with such detail that faces could be seen.
The Horse in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge
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The first photograph to prove photography's scientific purpose. Muybridge proved that a horse's feet completely leave the ground when galloping, observing with the camera what the naked eye could not.
Bandit's Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street by Jacob Riis
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This iconic photograph of a New York slum caused the public to recognize the conditions of the city that needed to be fixed. Riis' photo was monumental in bringing the New York State’s landmark Tenement House Act of 1901, which cleared up living areas in New York.
The Hand of Mrs. Wilhelm Röntgen by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen​
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The first medical x-ray! Röntgen won the first Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901 and traveled the world revolutionizing the treatment of diseases under the surface.
Moonlight: The Pond by Edward Steichen
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The epitome of Pictoralism. Steichen strove to create photos and manipulate them rather than simply take them.
The Vanishing Race by Edward S. Curtis
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An effort to showcase the Native Americans of the present in a time where they were shoved into the past.
The Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz
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One of the first "modernist" photos. Pablo Picasso claimed that he and Stieglitz were "working in the same spirit
Cotton Mill Girl by Lewis Hine
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Lewis Hine's photographs of child laborers cut child labor in half from 1910 to 1920 due to regulatory legislation inspired by his images.
Blind by Paul Strand
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Strand's idea of photographing people while they weren't looking inspired the art of street photography which has since become wildly popular.
Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare by Henri Cartier-Bresson
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One of the first images portraying the "decisive moment" in photography - that split second photograph that an artist catches once in a blue moon.
Lunch Atop a Skyscraper by unknown
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This image is iconic in its portrayal of brazen New York Spirit and now crowds the city on mugs, posters and t-shirts.
Couple in Raccoon Coats by James VanDerZee​
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One of the first photographs challenging perceptions on race. It became an inspiration for African Americans striving towards their own American Dreams
The Loch Ness Monster by Unknown
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The first image to spark controversy over its authenticity, and the first consequently to be proven fake.
Hitler at a Nazi Party Rally by Heinrich Hoffmann
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A propaganda photograph for Nazi Germany, Hoffmann's image is a testament to the photograph's ability to promote nationalism and eventually send countries spiraling into war because of it.
Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange
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A powerful photograph depicting and conveying the
exhaustion and devastation of the Great Depression. Lange gave a voice to people who were suffering.
The Falling Soldier by Robert Capa
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This image struck a chord with the entire nation as Capa captured the graphics of war in a close up of a Spanish man being shot. It shows the danger of war as well as the danger photographers put themselves in.
The Hindenburg Disaster by Sam Shere
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A profound portrayal of how human error brings dire consequences.
Bloody Sunday by H. S. Wong
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This image of Japanese devastation in China provoked Western powers into joining what would become World War II.
Winston Churchill by Yousuf Karsh
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This iconic photograph of Churchill inspired later photographers to be unafraid in photographing politicians as they were or in a critical view.
Grief by Dmitri Baltermants
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Baltermants images of mass Nazi murders in the Soviet Union were considered an excessively graphic representation of the USSR's suffering and was censored until the 1960s. This allowed the Russian people to form a community memory of the great war's impact on them.
American Gothic by Gordon Parks
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Parks' famous photograph depicts the inequality among races in pre-civil rights America.
Betty Grable by Frank Powolny
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This image served as the iconic "girl back home" for American soldiers during World War II. She spurred them forward, the troops requesting 50,000 copies of her pin-up every month.
Flag Raising on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal
This famous image came to promote patriotism among Americans and was used as a symbol of unity after a long war.
V-J Day in Times Square by Joe Rosenthal
This photograph of a sailor passionately kissing a stranger in Times Square has become iconic and represents the euphoria felt across the nation on that day in history.