Picture This: No Need to Hold these Horses: Announcing New Free to Use and Reuse Set

No Need to Hold these Horses: Announcing New Free to Use and Reuse Set
By Kristi Finefield

In the Library’s latest Free to Use and Reuse set of images drawn from the collections, the focus is on the horse, and all the myriad ways these noble animals have been part of our lives, including sports, recreation, agriculture, transportation, and so on.

I spotted one image that for me, and maybe for many people, reflects my first experience “riding a horse” – a spin on the back of a colorful carousel horse:

A carousel ride, often fondly called a “merry-go-round,” at the annual Iowa State Fair in the capital city of Des Moines. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2016 Aug 11. https://ift.tt/2Z8zpae

Another photo reminded me of the first time I ever sat atop a real horse as a young girl, and couldn’t get over how high up I was, and how I enjoyed the chance to view the world from a totally new perspective:

Thomas W. Beede, resettlement client, Western Slope Farms, Colorado gives his youngest daughter a ride. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1939 Oct. https://ift.tt/2TaBr5T

You can almost see the youngest daughter of Thomas Beede imagining what it would be like to take this horse for a ride across the farm, but my guess is this working horse has no interest in a leisure stroll.

Do these photos or others in the set trigger a memory for you? Browse a selection below and check out the entire set for an equine adventure.

Horses. Leaping a 3 ft. 6 hurdle. Photo by Eadweard Muybridge, 1881. https://ift.tt/3cClahF

Ringling Bros. Galaxy of Champion Riders. Poster (lithograph) copyrighted by Courier Litho. Co., 1899. https://ift.tt/2T89yv7

Montauk Point, Rough Riders, Col. Roosevelt. Photo (cyanotype) by Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1898. https://ift.tt/3cBiReP

Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range, Madison County, Montana. Photo by Russell Lee, 1942 Aug. https://ift.tt/3fRytgn

[Inez Milholland Boissevain, wearing white cape, seated on white horse at the National American Woman Suffrage Association parade, March 3, 1913, Washington, D.C.] Photo from George Grantham Bain Collection, 1913 March 3. https://ift.tt/3byP3OH

The horse wrangler / Erwin E. Smith, Bonham, Texas. Photo by Erwin E. Smith, copyrighted 1910 June 24. https://ift.tt/3dSAOpl

Union engine no. 3 – York, Pa., fire department. Photo copyrighted 1911. https://ift.tt/3czROkh

Learn More:

• Explore the entire set of Free to Use and Reuse: Horses, as well as additional sets of images from the Library of Congress.
• Revisit Picture This entries including compelling images of horses from the Prints and Photographs Division’s collections:
  • Eadweard Muybridge: Birth of a Photographic Pioneer
  • Step Right Up! Circus Posters for your Viewing Pleasure
  • Caught Our Eyes: Jumping to Connections, not to Conclusions
  • Work Horses: Pulling their Weight