SANTA CRUZ, CA.- The Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz presents the travelling exhibition Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) surveyed the millions of photographs in its holdings to create an exhibition exploring the role of photography in our national life over the last century. Images chronicle events ranging from immigrants arriving at Ellis Island to Vietnam protests, from the Wright brothers’ first flight to footprints on the moon, from Omaha Beach to atomic bomb testing. Others reflect social changes that affected everyday life. Working with NARA, SITES developed a traveling version of this exhibition featuring 106 digitally produced prints.

Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives offers not only a significant overview of but also a unique perspective on the 20th century. The exhibition explores the powerful role the federal government played in the history of photography in the United States. It shows how, from the very beginning of the 1900s, federal agencies used images to document and establish the importance of their work. Congress created the National Archives in the mid-1930s, a period when documentary photography flourished and Life magazine began publication. Over the ensuing decades, the federal government increased the size and range of its photographic activities, bringing millions of photographic prints, negatives, and transparencies into the holdings of the National Archives.

The images in Picturing the Century were selected from 33 NARA facilities across the country and include agency photographs as well as photographs from private sources that were used by the government. Some images were designed to serve as dispassionate records; others sought to persuade.

NARA curator Bruce Bustard balances well-known photographs of significant events with less-familiar images that provide surprising glimpses into history. Organized chronologically, the exhibition often moves from the commonplace (rural mail delivery in 1930) to the extraordinary (a World War II Flying Fortress breaking up under fire). Six “portfolios” feature images by a single photographer—George Ackerman, Lewis Hine, Charles Fenno Jacobs, Dorothea Lange, Walter Lubken, and Danny Lyon—along with text outlining their involvement with the government.

Picturing the Century offers a breadth and perspective that marks the end of the 20th century in a singular manner. It provides host venues with multiple programming and outreach opportunities and introduces viewers to NARA’s rich photographic holdings. A companion book ( University of Washington Press) of the same title, written by curator Bruce Bustard, includes 157 images from the original exhibition.