Picture This: One Hundred Fifty Years of Copyright at the Library of Congress

One Hundred Fifty Years of Copyright at the Library of Congress
By Kristi Finefield

The year 1870 is significant for copyright and the Library of Congress. Prior to that year, copyright registration was administered by the U.S. District Courts. Starting in 1870, the copyright registration and deposit system was centralized in the Library of Congress. One of the requirements for protecting your creation with copyright was to send in two copies of the work being copyrighted.

As you can imagine, this meant a flood of books, music and visual materials of all kinds started arriving at the Library of Congress. When they were chosen by staff, some of these items made their way to various collections in the Library of Congress, including the Prints and Photographs Division. Hundreds of thousands of items have been added to the Prints and Photographs Division’s holdings over the last 150 years thanks to this treasure trove of prints, photos, posters and more.

Browse just a handful of the array of images available online for all to enjoy thanks to copyright deposits:

Champion Jack Johnson at wheel of his 90 horse power Thomas Flyer. Photo copyrighted by Louis Van Oeyen, 1910. https://ift.tt/3fDED2q

United States Senate [of 36th Congress]. Photo copyrighted by Mathew M. Brady, 1859. https://ift.tt/3kn27MM

With love, to my valentine. Chromolithograph copyrighted by Obpacher Bros., 1884. https://ift.tt/2Pzt2Xm

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, steamer at pier. Photo copyrighted by Harold A. Parker, 1910. https://ift.tt/30Ckk0W

Kodak. Photo copyrighted by Anne Brigman, 1908. https://ift.tt/2XCrL6e

[Princeton University woman baseball player]. Lithograph copyrighted by Louise Clarke, 1905. https://ift.tt/3a3dsNc

Red Messina Orange. Print copyrighted by Hance brothers & White, 1897. https://ift.tt/3a6XhhK

A portrait of Minnie Krailey. Photo copyrighted by Milton Caldwell Helm, 1911. https://ift.tt/2PydFyt

Tribune Tower Building, Chicago, Illinois, looking north-east. Photo copyrighted 1931. https://ift.tt/3fJ3Atq

The ancestor of the ferris wheel, Egypt. Stereograph copyrighted by C.H. Graves, 1904. https://ift.tt/2PzKRG2

“Dig”. Chromolithograph copyrighted by Sadie Wendell Mitchell, 1909. https://ift.tt/2cHAtZK

Learn More:

• Enjoy a sampling of the items received by copyright deposit in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.
• Read a previous Picture This blog post about historical prints deposited for copyright at the Library of Congress: A Grand Entry: Entered According to Act of Congress.
• Visit the Engage Your Creativity website from the U.S. Copyright Office, which shares resources as they celebrate their 150th anniversary at the Library of Congress all year.