Chris Says: Check out the Prokudin-Gorskii Collection

If you have been following our blog you are probably aware I am working on a masters in library science.  This semester I am taking a digital libraries course and have been introduced to the Prokudin-Gorskii digital photograph collection maintained by the Library of Congress.  This collection is unique for two reasons.  First, the photographer traveled the vast expanse of the Russian empire and photographing people, landscapes, architecture, and just about everything else.  Second, these photos were taken prior to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, before Russia was ravaged by two wars, and the photos are in color.  Here are some of my favorites from the collection.  I have not been through all of the collection because there are over two thousand photos in the collection, all of which are made available online through the Library of Congress.

Click here to view the entire collection 
Click here for the collection's mainpage

Here are some photos from the collection.

Russian Peasant Girls

Author Leo Tolstoy

Turkmen Camel Driver

The Emir of Bukhara