Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in an Era of Mechanical Reproduction.
Some Web Addresses of Photo Collections
Go to Photos and Prints: an indexed good collection of historical photo collections, from ca. 1840 onwards.
Daguerreotype Collection, Library of Congress
Selections from Library of Congress Daguerreotypes Collection
Carl van Vechten: Portraits - Library of Congress
Curtis' Native Americans - Library of Congress
Civil War Photos by Mathew Brady and others - Library of Congress
Civil War Photos New York Historical Society - Library of Congress
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information - Library of Congress
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (except Library of Congress) for instance: Ikaru Iwasaki, Dorothea Lange.
Japanese Americans' Internment by Ansel Adams, Library of Congress
Chinese in California, Library of Congress
African Americans in Ohio, Library of Congress
Chicago Daily News, Library of Congress
Presidential Inaugurations, Library of Congress
Library of Congress: Fenton Crimean War Photographs (Fenton) - 263 photographs by Roger Fenton. 1855. Views of participants, landscapes and equipment.
Library of Congress: National Child Labor Committee Collection (NCLC) - about 500 photographic prints (records being added) 1908-1924. Photographs, primarily by Lewis Hine, focusing on children, showing workers, working and living conditions, and educational settings. Consists of a portion of the images from the collection for which copy photos have been produced.
Alexander, Sandy. "Out On a Limb: The Spatial Politics of Lynching Photography." - c.f. also, James Allen, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, 2000.
Walt Whitman Archive, including first edition (1855) "Song of Myself"