Former President Jimmy Carter passed away earlier this week at the age of 100. Today, I’ll highlight a few collections in the Prints & Photographs Division which include images related to the life of Carter, the longest-living President in American history.
U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection:
Carter’s active years fall squarely in the scope of the U.S. News collection, which includes photos taken primarily by staff photographers between the years 1952 and 1986. The collection numbers nearly 1.2 million photographs, with a few thousand available online. The digitized photos of President Carter in the collection show him campaigning, traveling, and conducting the duties of the office of President.
Bernard Gotfryd Collection:
Photographer Bernard Gotfryd was active as a photographer from 1957 through the 1980s, often photographing for magazines such as Newsweek. As a news photographer during Carter’s term in office, he had many opportunities to photograph the President, his family, and many figures in his circle.
As part of her years-long project to photograph all 50 states in America, contemporary photographer Carol M. Highsmith has taken well over 1,000 photographs in the state of Georgia. She spent a couple days in 2017 visiting Plains, Georgia, as well as the former President and First Lady:
Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS):
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) includes buildings that are architecturally significant, as well as those associated with historical figures and their lives. In that spirit, HABS includes documentation of 31 structures in and around Plains, Georgia, with connections to President Carter and/or First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
Learn More:
- See more photos related to President Carter in the U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, and learn about the collection as a whole in this research guide.
- Explore Bernard Gotfryd’s photos of President Carter and others connected to him.
- Read other blog posts from the Library of Congress about the late President:
Comments (4)
I’m sad and don’t know what to say again, my condolences and prayers for Mr. Jimmy Carter’s lovely family and friends okay thanks remember peace.
My condolences and prayers are with the Carter family. I would love to see more photos.
I worked on the Carter campaign in 1976 in Toledo, Ohio while in college.
I always loved that man. Will his home and gravesite be open to the public in the future?
Sending prayers for the family.
Thanks you to the LOC staff for your exquisite curation of what must me a large number of photos of Jimmy Carter that you preserve for all of us and future generations. Your selected a handful of technically compelling photos that also help tell the story of the Man from Plains as a person and a leader. Your photos remind us of a time in American that was not that long ago, and is nevermore. One theme of stories that could be told is the signing ceremonies for bills POTUS Carter signed into law. On October 1, 1980, he signed into law at a ceremony in Niagra Falls, NY two laws: the West Valley Development Project Act (cleanup of the environmental legacy at a nuclear warhead materials production site south of Buffalo, NY) and the Love Canal Agreement (compensation to residents living on the eponymous abandoned hazardous waste site). On Aug 8, 1977 he signed the Clean Air Act amendments into law, which have saves millions of lives by putting teeth into air quality protections. He also ceased nuclear reprocessing to help halt global trade in plutonium usable for nuclear weapons. Such a photos series would illustrate the good that President Carter did by affixing his simple signature to paper. Each of these photos may seem quotidian in appearance, but serve to document the enormous good he did by signing his name to create law and policy that changed the world and resound today.