In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984) documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California where Japanese Americans interned during World War II. Presented by the Library of Congress, Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar displays side-by-side digital scans of Adams's 242 original negatives and 209 photographic prints. Furthermore, viewers get the opportunity not only to see Adam's darkroom techniques but also how he cropped his prints. Some of the photographic images include views of daily life, agricultural scenes, and sports and leisure activities. Adams offered the collection to the Library of Congress in 1965, stating that the purpose of his work was to "show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and despair by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment...." Searchable by keyword and browseable by subject, for the first time, Internet users can get an illustrative glimpse of what life was like for Japanese Americans during this time.
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