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This article is a sales pitch for pictures, even though art librarians already value visual materials highly. A decade’s advances in online access at a major documentary picture provider, the Library of Congress’ Prints and Photographs Division, should encourage librarians to visit the online United States national library often, and also to offer more of their own collections through the World Wide Web. Despite the beneficial digital image navigation features introduced into the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC), many improvements are still needed and there is a long list of desirable future developments. Reference librarians, catalogers, curators, digital conversion specialists and web designers are all invited to contribute to online reference aids as well as online catalogs, to help people succeed more often in finding pictures.

Form, genre, and physical characteristics are basic elements in the description of archival material. Either alone or in combination with such other information as name of originating agency, subject, place, and date, they are a powerful retrieval tool that is only beginning to be exploited. The authors summarize the value of access by type of material, describe the vocabulary lists currently in use by archivists and other special collections communities, and outline benefits of distinguishing subject headings from form headings. They focus on catalog entries in systems using the USMARC bibliographic format, with special attention to retrieval issues in catalogs shared by archival, rare book, and visual material collections. Their conclusion calls for increased use of form headings and more cooperation to ensure effective access.

Soon after the Civil War ended the internationally renowned photographer and entrepreneur Mathew B. Brady (1823–1896) began his long search for a repository to preserve his extensive collection of celebrated portraits and war views. In addition to the preservation of his work, Brady sought personal financial aid. His efforts to become the pictorial historian of the Civil War had placed him deeply in debt, and after the conflict ceased the expected market for war photographs did not materialize. Recently discovered records of his negotiations with the New-York Historical Society in 1865 and 1866 reconfirm the grand scale of Brady's vision and his faith in the importance of photographs as historical documents. The events surrounding the negotiations reflect the high opinion of photography held by some members of New York City's intellectual community, as well as the limits of Brady's persuasive powers and the limits of a historical agency's desire to carry out its stated goals.