Get To Know: Arnold Genthe

The Library of Congress acquired approximately 20,000 items from Arnold Genthe’s unclaimed studio after his death. He was internationally known for working in a soft, pictorial style.

He emigrated to San Francisco in the 1890s and opened a studio. Sometimes hiding his camera, he created a body of work in the city’s Chinatown area. After the 1906 earthquake, he relocated to the artist colony in Carmel-By-The-Sea. An early adopter of the Autochrome process, his archives contain a number of these color prints.

About16,000 black and white negatives, transparencies, lantern slides, and color autochromes were digitized by Library of Congress staff, so you can research more images online. Thousands of images are still not processed for digital viewing, but you can view unprocessed prints under the LOC Access to Unprocessed Materials policy.

Woman wearing a headband and holding Buzzer the cat, 1906, autochrome. From the Arnold Genthe photograph collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.