Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1880, Carl Van Vechten had a career in a host of artistic endeavors throughout his life, including his written works and his prodigious work in photography. After graduating from the University of Chicago, he became a staff writer with the Chicago American and he soon found himself asked to also provide photographs to accompany his copy. During this period, he also published his first book of essays and then later began photographing a number of landscapes and acquaintances. This particular collection from the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress brings together close to 1400 of his photographs for consideration by the web-browsing public, and it is definitely worth several visits. The casual visitor may want to begin looking through the photographs by browsing the occupational index listings, which include artists such as Georgia O’Keefe, Truman Capote, Ossie Davis, and Ethel Waters. Finally, visitors may also want to look over a timeline and biographical sketch of Van Vechten, which also appear on the site.