Seventh Division schoolchildren and teacher studying leaves out of doors, Washington, D.C., ca. 1899, by Frances Benjamin Johnston via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
In 1899, Johnston became interested in progressive education and made a photo survey of students at public schools in Washington, D.C.
Edgemont (or Cocke Farm), Albemarle County, Virginia, 1935, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Built ca. 1796 for James Powell Cocke, Edgemont is significant as a very early example of a country residence in the combination Palladian and French manner promulgated by Thomas Jefferson. Although the design of the house has been credited to Jefferson for several decades, precise documentation of the authorship remains yet to be established. The character* of the compact and sophisticated dwelling is uniquely Jeffersonian, however, and exhibits the influence he had on the architecture of his region. . . .
— from the 1980 nomination to the National Register of Historic Places
At the time of the photo, only two porticoes of the probable original four still existed. The house was restored and renovated in the late 1930s and 1940s. There are more F.B.J. photos here and 1996 photos here.
* “a formality and classical correctness devoid of monumentality. . .”
Picket fence and view of Stonington, Connecticut, November 1940, by Jack Delano, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The image was taken for the U.S. Farm Security Administration on the then new Kodachrome color transparency film.
Front porch of a farmhouse ready for Halloween, near Elderon, Wisconsin, 1994, by John N. Vogel for an Historic American Building Survey (HABS), via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The HABS noted the house’s “prominent front porch with Tuscan columns and hipped roof” and called it “a good example of the Gabled Ell form” of Wisconsin vernacular architecture. There are wider views here.
“6th Division mathematics class on a street paving problem,” Washington, D.C., ca. 1899, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Before she became immersed in the work of photographing old houses and gardens, Johnston was a photojournalist and a portraitist. In 1899, she became interested in progressive education and made a photo survey of students at public schools in Washington, D.C.
enclos*ure 