George Grantham Bain Collection

News photographs of New York City, early twentieth century

Collection digitized? Yes, in large part. A large portion of the glass negatives and a smaller portion of photographic prints for which copy negatives exist are currently available online via the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC). Selected images are included here to give a sample of the collection.

In 1948 the Library of Congress purchased the photographic files of one of America's earliest news picture agencies, the Bain News Service. George Grantham Bain (1865-1944), formerly affiliated with the United Press, founded his New York photo agency in 1898. The news service specialized in New York City news and covered, to a lesser degree, events in the eastern United States. It distributed its own pictures and those purchased from other commercial agencies to about one hundred newspapers. The collection was purchased from D. J. Culver of New York, who retained some material at the time of purchase.

The Bain picture files richly document local sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, political activities including the woman suffrage campaign, conventions and public celebrations. The extensive news coverage provided by the Bain News Service is suggested by the approximately 40,000 glass plate negatives and 50,000 photographic prints in the collection. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1910s to the mid-1920's, but scattered images can be found as early as the 1890's and as late as the 1930's.

For the most part, portraits and printed biographical information collected by the news service have been integrated with the division's central Biographical file. The remaining photographic prints are grouped by subject and recorded in the Prints & Photographs Divisional card catalog. A large portion of the glass negatives and a smaller portion photographic prints for which copy negatives exist are currently available online via the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC).

Note: Information for this entry was compiled in the late 1970's for inclusion in: Special Collections in the Library of Congress: A Selective Guide. Compiled by Annette Melville. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1980. The entry was last revised in 2005.

Emma H. Little, "The Father of News Photography, George Grantham Bain," in Picturescope (Z692.P5P5), v. 20, Autumn 1972, p. 125-132.

U.S. Library of Congress. Reference Department. Guide to the Special Collections of Prints & Photographs in the Library of Congress (Washington: 1955. NE53.W3A52), compiled by Paul Vanderbilt, no. 43.