Nelson Atkins Art Museum Poster

A photograph of the Nelson Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City, Missouri taken by Carol M. Highsmith in 2004. During her early career, Highsmith photographed interior and exterior architecture. But as she and her writer-husband, Ted Landphair, travelled the country to every state and major city to work on the Random House "Photographic Tour" and smaller "Pictorial Souvenir" book series, Highsmith’s scope broadened to be a photographic documentarian. She photographed ordinary people and everyday sites as well as soaring architecture, natural landscapes, national parks and monuments, Civil War battlefields, and engineering marvels. Her book subjects included the cities San Francisco, New Orleans, Washington, and Chicago; New York's five boroughs; the states of Florida, Colorado, and Virginia; the Pacific Northwest and New England Coast; as well as lighthouses, barns, Amish culture, and the Appalachian Trail.