BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
“Lyndon B. Johnson takes the oath of office as president of the United States after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.” Cecil Stoughton, Dallas, Texas, Nov. 22, 1963. They are "time machines" that capture the brightest and darkest moments of our history, the breadth and depth of human imagination and inspiration, the sorrows and triumphs of a young nation, the social and political challenges of 20th-century America. The 106 historic photographs currently on display at the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft are a window on a tumultuous century of American history played out, at times, on the world stage.
"Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives" will be on display at the museum, located on the campus of Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, through June 6. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday 1-5 p.m. Admission is $5.
The traveling exhibit is an offshoot of a larger exhibit launched in 1999 to mark the end of the 20th century. The traveling exhibit, prepared by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services, will tour through year-end. Since the exhibit began, it has been displayed at 15 venues and the historic photos have been seen by more than a quarter of a million people.
The photo images were culled from the millions of photographs held by the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C., which maintains one of the largest photographic archives in the world. Most are the work of photographers who worked for agencies of the federal government.
“Da Nang, Vietnam … A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing.” Unknown photographer, Aug. 3, 1965.
According to U.S. Archivist John W. Carlin, the historic images are a way to "visualize and comprehend" the events of the last 100 years.
The mostly black-and-white photo images — some have become icons — span a century of evolution from agrarian society to industrialized nation, from the Wright brothers’ tentative first flight to a man walking on the moon, from the wild American West to urban blight.
Along the way, the photos depict painful episodes of wars and the bread lines of the Great Depression, the exploitation of child laborers, the evacuation of Japanese-Americans, the struggle for civil rights.
But there is an optimism, too, in photos of feisty suffragettes, steelworkers building skyscrapers, and the striking image taken from space of the shuttle Challenger poised over the Earth.
“South China Sea … Crewmen of the amphibious cargo ship USS Durham (LKA-114) take Vietnamese refugees aboard from a small craft. The refugees will be transferred later by mechanized landing craft (LCM) to the freighter Transcolorado.” JO1 Mike McGougan, April 3, 1975.
"Picturing the Century" is organized into six categories: A New Century; The Great War and the New Era; The Great Depression and the New Deal; A World in Flames; Postwar America; and Century’s End.
Six portfolios are part of the exhibit and present works by photographers Lewis Hine, Walter Lubken, George Ackerman, Charles Fenno Jacobs, Dorothea Lange and Danny Lyon.
But project director Jeffrey Thompson said one of the strengths of the exhibition is the fact that many of the works are by anonymous photographers.
"I am struck by the number of really momentous, vivid photos that are anonymous. That’s a nice balance to the portfolios by the professional photographers," he said.
“A few of the thousands of wedding rings the Germans removed from their victims to salvage the gold. U.S. troops found rings, watches, precious stones, eyeglasses and gold fillings near Buchenwald concentration camp.” T4c. Roberts, May 5, 1945.
According to Dorothy V. Morehouse, director of the Monmouth Museum, "Picturing the Century" highlights the museum’s mission.
"We are always interested in American history, and it just seemed very apt," she explained.
Morehouse noted the exhibit is a nostalgic one for seniors, while at the same time the images focus on social issues and raise difficult questions about American society.
"It does have a political viewpoint. A lot of the photos were taken during the Depression," Morehouse said. "All sorts of different political beliefs are expressed, not only about the Depression, but the oppression of the poor, the whole mid-century era. Especially during World War II and after, the country was going through tremendous turmoil. In the 1960s we had the assassinations, then dropouts and drugs in the 1970s. It was an interesting century."