George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film has been invited by popular photo-sharing Web site Flickr to join The Commons project. A selection of photographs from the collections of Eastman House, the world’s oldest museum of photography, went live on July 17 and are now being shared with the world. Eastman House is one of six institutions taking part, as its images are shared alongside the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, Brooklyn Museum, Australia’s Powerhouse Museum, and France’s Bibliothéque Toulouse.

Flickr, a Yahoo company, describes The Commons as “Your opportunity to contribute to describing the world’s public photo collections.” Flickr is inviting its users to browse, tag, and share comments about the images. In the Web world, a tag is defined as an informally assigned keyword or term that aids in browsing and searching.

Eastman House’s initial posting from its collection of 400,000 images features autochromes, daguerreotypes, and images from the turn of the 20th century made from glass-plate negatives. Additional photographs will continually be added. By summer’s end, Eastman House will post works by celebrated photographer Lewis Hine, whose famous images document immigration at Ellis Island, child labor, and the building of the Empire State Building.

Comments posted regarding the Eastman House images on Flickr include:

• “Those pictures are so very rare, I haven't seen any of these in my entire life!”
• “Something fascinating is happening at Flickr!”
• “George Eastman House has included a set of early 20th-century autochromes that have been a source of fascination and inspiration for years.”

The Commons began in January 2008 as a pilot project between Flickr and the Library of Congress, which allowed Flickr to “tap into the Library’s rich historical footage and allow it to be viewed from Flickr,” according to an article on The Commons site announcing “Flickr Takes Historical Imagery to the Masses.” The Library’s first posting was 3,000 collection images.

According to Flickr, the project will also “facilitate the collection of general knowledge about these collections, with the hope that this information can feed back into the catalogues, making them richer and easier to search.” The online low-res images are intended for personal, non-commercial use.

“Our primary goal is to share our collection and allow people to engage with the photographs,” said Jessica Johnston curatorial associate with Eastman House’s Department of Photographs. To date, Eastman House has posted 219 images.

A secondary goal for Eastman House is information gathering. For example, many of the subjects of the currently featured daguerreotypes are unknown. Also, while caption information is provided for the featured Eastman House images from the Charles Chusseau-Flaviens collection, the text was derived from the photographer’s etchings on glass plates. As a result, errors in translating or deciphering handwriting may have occurred. In these cases, Flickr visitors may be able to provide missing information, such as what is happening, who is pictured, and location.

A Flickr spokesperson noted that Flickr plans to expand The Commons project with other cultural institutions in the future, “allowing members to explore more abundant collections of cultural and historic photos.”

“Joining The Commons on Flickr represents Eastman House’s most significant Internet venture, with the museum presenting its world-renowned collections to the largest online photo-sharing community,” said Ryan Donahue, Eastman House webmaster.

George Eastman House Photographs featured on The Commons at Flickr:

Man with book sitting in chair ca. 1915

Autochromes (68 images)
After decades of wishing for a practical color process, photographers were thrilled when Auguste and Louis Lumière announced the invention of the autochrome process. The process used a screen of tiny potato starch grains dyed orange-red, green and violet. Dusted onto a glass plate, the dyed grains were covered with a layer of sensitive panchromatic silver bromide emulsion. As light entered the camera, it was filtered by the dyed grains before it reached the emulsion. While the exposure time was very long, the plate could be processed easily by a photographer familiar with standard darkroom procedures. The result was a unique, realistic, positive color image on glass that required no further printing.

George Eastman House has significant holdings of autochromes, including autochromes by Edward Steichen and more than 3,900 examples by photographer Charles Zoller of Rochester.

View these photos!