The Flickr Foundation is happy to announce two new Flickr Commons members! Hot on the heels of our grand re-opening in November, we’re on a roll (with three more coming next week)! Meet the two newest members of Flickr Commons, Capital Area District Library, and the Randolph Historical Society!

Capital Area District Library

The Forest Parke Library & Archives (Local History Collections) of the Capital Area District Libraries in Michigan has thirteen branches (and one mobile library) serving twenty-three municipalities and they are just getting started on Flickr. The library wants to document their local area- what the buildings look like, what the businesses and religious structures are and more. As they get started on Flickr, you can look through albums of old stereograms  (RIP Stereograminator) and, more recently, quonset huts.

A view of the Michigan State Capitol building looking toward the front facade to the west. c. 1880

View of Grand Ledge, date unknown

731 East Sheriden, Lansing MI. c. 2018

Pentecostal Fellowship Stained Glass 1330 E. Cesar E. Chavez Avenue c. 2018

Randolph Historical Society

The Randolph Historical Society is in Randolph, Vermont, a town of 4700 people which was chartered in 1781. Their first collection is a set of glass plate negatives of town history by Luther Tucker Sparhawk (1831-1918), a photographer who called Randolph home.

Randolph was also home to several other early photographers who took pictures of not only the buildings and natural features of the town but also the town’s early residents. The Sparhawk studio left a wealth of negatives which were not only well-labelled 😍 but also showed a sense of playfulness. Some of the photographs held by the RHS are photos of images which were in already-old formats at the time they were re-photographed in the late 1800s.

Main Street Randolph, c. late 1800s

An early selfie c. 1899

Annie Walsh and George Walsh and ???? c. 1899

William Nutting Esquire, copy of a daguerreotype taken in 1846

Clara and Daisy, enlargement from a tintype, c 1890s

Find out more about joining Flickr Commons

If you work at a museum, library, archive, or historical society and you’re interested in finding out more about joining Flickr Commons, please register your interest with the Flickr Foundation. We are especially interested in extending membership to organizations and institutions in Africa, South America or Asia, so if that’s you, please reach out for a chat. We’d love to talk to you!