Administrative Information
Provenance
Gift; U.S. News & World Report, Inc.; 1983-1986; (DLC/PP-1983:R03, DLC/PP-1987:116).
Processing History
The U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection (Library of Congress) was processed by Elisabeth Parker, George Hobart, Jacqueline Leclerc, Phil Michel, Demaris Garris, and other Library staff between 1983 and 1991. This finding aid contains unverified data transcribed in 2011-2015 from the original logbooks and annotated by Library staff. Transcriptions were reviewed in 2020 comparing the logbooks and the transcriptions by Tori Cox, Gillian Mahoney, Maya Reid, Jacob Stickann, and Nick Pernot. Finding aid encoded by Emma Esperon in 2021.
Additional materials that form the U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection (Library of Congress) not included in this finding aid are one box of unprocessed prints controlled under the call number PR 13 CN 1983:R03. For more information about service of these additional materials, search our Online Catalog by call number.
Background
The U.S. News & World Report (USN&WR) collection of primarily 35mm black & white safety negatives and corresponding contact sheets was given to the Library of Congress in two segments. The first gift of 900,000 items for 1952-Feb. 1973 was received in 1983. When the first segment of the collection was given to the Library, USN&WR retained many images of presidents in office. The second gift of 350,000 items completes USN&WR black & white coverage to 1986. In 1986, the magazine switched totally to color film, although there had been some color materials that predate the switch.
The earliest material was the least well identified and indexed by USN&WR. During July 1987, former staff photographers Thomas O'Halloran and Warren K. Leffler reviewed and identified material through Job No.: 1951 (February 1959). They were able to identify material photographed by Marion S. Trikosko for this period as well.
Along with the negatives, contact sheets, and proofs, USN&WR provided accompanying information including a Subject Card Index and the original logbook/contact record. The logbook forms the basis of this finding aid. The logs are arranged by job number and include: subject of the job, photographer's initials and/or agency, and date of execution. Library staff annotated the logbooks with Library holdings in the 1980s. A check mark indicated materials received, while an X indicates that USN&WR kept the roll of film and it is not at the Library of Congress.
Job titles are a direct transcription from the logbook. Notes are a combination of direct transcription and verified information provided by Library staff. Illegible words or dates in the original logbook were transcribed to the best of staff ability and annotated with a question mark to denote ambiguity or "sic" for original errors and corrections. Spelling, uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as punctuation were transcribed as they appear in the logbook. Appendices created by Library staff explain common abbreviations (i.e. "BS" means Black Star photo agency, "IVU" means Interview), photographer names, as well as Black Star photographer names.
Related Material
Copies of a substantive run of the U.S. News & World Report magazine are available in the Prints and Photograph's reference book collection. Microfilm copies of the published volumes of the magazine are also available in the Library of Congress General Collections. There are many more images in the U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection than were published in the magazine, although not all published images are in the collection.
For more information about the entire collection, refer to the Research Guide: U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection.
Related Material at Other Repositories
To find other newspaper photograph morgues, please visit the Newspaper Photograph Morgues page on the Prints & Photographs Reading Room webpage.
Alternate Formats
Negatives and transparencies are filed separately and are arranged by size and job number in the following series. Item numbers within a series correlate to their corresponding job number. Most of the 35mm negatives and many of the other negatives have been contact printed. Negatives and transparencies are generally not served to researchers.
| If code begins with: | It is a: |
| LC-U9 | black & white negative [35mm or 120mm] |
| LC-U91 | black & white negative [8x10 inch] |
| LC-U92 | color negative [8x10 inch or 4x5 inch] or color transparency [8 x 10 inch, 4 x 5 inch, or 35mm] |
| LC-U93 | color negative or color transparency [35mm] |
| LC-U99 | safety film negative [4x5 inch] |
| LC-U99-T | interpositive film [4x5 inch] |
| LC-U99-T01 | duplicate film negative [4x5 inch] |
Online Content
To see already digitized images from this collection, search our Online Catalog by call number ("LC-U9" or "USN&WR") and/or descriptive words.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-U9-15739, frame 18].