Snapshots of the Past Wall Art L | sku-13635008544

Snapshots of the Past Wall Art in Black, size L (sku-13635008544; UPC 464678572359), depicts Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring presenting a scholarship to Thomas C. Towler of Baltimore, MD, in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 13. The print measures 16" x 20". Founded in 2001, Snapshots of the Past was the first company to offer Library of Congress images as museum-quality fine-art reproduction prints.

Its buyers include over 200 bookstores and other retailers, along with tens of thousands of internet customers. The company was selected as a vendor for the White House redecoration project in 2008. Its reproductions draw on historical maps, photos and prints from the Library of Congress archives and use fine-art and archival papers.

Prints made with archival paper and pigmented inks can last a lifetime and be passed down through generations. Lithography was invented in 1796, allowing inexpensive mass production of prints. In 1989, the Library of Congress began the American Memory pilot project, which laid the foundation for the National Digital Library Program launched in 1995.

That program digitizes selected collections on American cultural history. The collection includes holiday posters and early aerial views of Manhattan, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.