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COMM 215: Basic Photography for Communications

This guide is for students in Penn State Harrisburg's COMM 215 taught by Dr. Catherine McCormick. It includes numerous research sources about the history of photography, including information about the J. Randall Plummer Photography Collection.

J. Randall Plummer Photography Collection

daguerreotype of a seated white woman in a white bonnet wearing a dark dress, and with her hands foldedAbout the Collection

Acquired in Fall 2014 from private collector, Mr. J. Randall Plummer, the collection consists of museum-quality, fine art photographic prints.  Archives and Special Collections at the Penn State Harrisburg Library is proud to curate and preserve over twenty examples from Mr. Plummer's extensive collection of photography.  

Items in the collection span the early 1850s to the late 1970s and serve as examples of various photographic processes used through the history of early and modern photography, such as pristine examples of daguerreotypes by Samuel Root (pictured left) and Jeremiah Gurney, a large and rare hand-tinted tin type, several gelatin silver prints, a salted paper print, a printing-out paper (POP) print, and a collotype print.  In addition to works by noted daguerreotype photographers Samuel Root and Jeremiah Gurney, other well-known artists represented in the collection include Walker Evans, Russell Lee, Eadweard Muybridge, Arthur Rothstein, and Alfred Stieglitz. 

The J. Randall Plummer Photography Collection provides a valuable teaching and learning tool for the history and evolution of photography.  The Plummer Collection is used frequently by faculty and students in Penn State Harrisburg's Communications and American Studies programs.  

Please Note:  During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Reading Room of Archives and Special Collections is temporarily closed until further notice.

 

General Archives and Plummer Collection Brochures

Plummer Collection via Flickr

To vflickr iconiew digital images of works from the J. Randall Plummer Photography Collection, please visit the album on Flickr. 

Please Note:  This is the official Flickr site for Archives and Special Collections at the Penn State Harrisburg Library.  You can also browse over 1,600 images from more special collections on Flickr. 

Class Exercise: Photo Analysis Worksheet

Credit:  The "Photo Analysis Worksheet" used for this assignment is part of a series of public domain worksheets, created by the National Archives, to encourage educators to teach with primary sources.  For more information, please visit the National Archives' Educator Resources.