The Library of Congress is great. On June 23, 2005 I made a post about the Jefferson Papers from the Library of Congress’ website.
Yesterday I came across a hi-res civil war album. There are 200 individual photos in all. It’s the James Wadsworth album. He worked in the Lincoln White House. This page gives a brief, but detailed story behind the Wadsworth album.
There’s an option to download the hi-res version which is about 6.5″ x 10″ at 300 dpi (2000 pixels by 3000 pixels). You can also view the photos as they appeared in the album (4 on a page).
While I was in college, I found a Civil War portrait book in the school library. I made a nice woodcut series based on some of the photos. I returned the book and was never able to find the book again. I even went back after I graduated to find the book and had no luck. I’ve looked online and at book stores and never came across it. But now I have something even better. I can download all 200 portraits and have hi-res copies. I will certainly be doing some illustration/painting/prints from this series!