Flickr Commons
The DCPL has joined the Commons on Flickr. We’ll first be including images from our E. B. Thompson collection in the Commons.
We want to make the collection widely available and useful. Accordingly, we welcome your input on the photos whether you tag them, add comments or email us.
No Known Copyright
The images included in the DCPL Commons are of no known copyright restrictions meaning that the library is unaware of any current copyright restrictions on the images, either because the copyright has expired or other circumstances. If you are interested in commercial use, reproductions please contact us.
Photo Contest!
To celebrate our inclusion into the Flickr Commons, we’re holding a photo contest. Read more about it at our blog post titled “Photo Contest: DC Then & Now.”
Visit the DCPL Commons on Flickr.
Provenance of the E.B. Thompson Collection
In 1944 the D.C. Public Library purchased over 1800 lanternslides and glass plate negatives from E.B. Thompson for $1,000. Mr. Thompson was a photographer who in 1904 opened a store that sold “steropticon supplies, cameras, lantern slides,” and other photographic equipment at 1343 F St., NW. 
His camera shop moved numerous times in forty years, ending up finally at 1744 Columbia Road, N.W. In 1944, his business letterhead advertised his store as selling “Sound and Silent Motion Pictures and Slides”.He offered to sell his collection of images of Washington, DC to the DC Public Library as he prepared to retire from full time work after a long illness in 1944.
The E. B. Thompson collection is part of the Washington Historical Image Collection which contains approximately 100,000 images (ca. 1800-Present, bulk 1880-1940). The DCPL also houses the Washington Star Collection which contains approximately 1.2 million images (ca. 1930-1981, bulk 1965-1981).