A Second Life for the Snapshots of Elizabeth Howe Bliss

Focusing on the output of Elizabeth Howe Bliss, a Progressive Era travelling social worker, this article explores the snapshots Bliss made in New York City, Oklahoma and France. Although circulated in her own time, Bliss’s images and their publication history have only recently been rediscovered. They deserve further analysis as they illuminate the practices of women using photography personally and professionally during the early decades of the twentieth century, and for their value to researchers of photographic history and beyond. This article argues for the importance of recirculating Bliss’s snapshots – as well as other forms of vernacular imagery – through the digital dissemination made possible by platforming these photographic materials online within virtual spaces, and considers the specifics of one such platform, the Smithsonian Learning Lab.