Photos of Immigrant Ships

Are you interested in finding photos of immigrant ships that your ancestors boarded to emigrate to North America?

Navigating for Images of Ships Guide

The Library of Congress offers a new research guide for images of ships in their holdings. Jonathan Eaker, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division, says the guide

… has a wide array of images depicting ships, including many photographs as well as engravings, lithographs, drawings, and other types of illustrations. The images are scattered throughout the collections, so understanding the collection strengths as well as best places to search will help you focus your research on the most likely places.

While you will find some images of ships made earlier and later, the Division’s ship collections are strongest between the years 1850 and 1950. The earlier the date the more likely we are to have an illustration rather than a photograph.

That featured image above is La Lorraine, an undated print from the Bain News Service Collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Below, more from the photos of immigration ships holdings at LC.

Clipper ship Three Brothers, 2972 tons: The largest sailing ship in the world,” Currier & Ives (Courtesy Library of Congress pga 00670 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.00670)