Carol M. Highsmith

"big brutus," a giant strip-mining shovel that once roared across the southeast kansas countryside, digging bituminous coal

Carol Highsmith has donated her life's photography work of tens of thousands of images to the Library of Congress during her decades-long career.  The photography collection at the Library is the most historic photographic collection on earth and includes the work of Dorothea Lange and Frances Benjamin Johnston.  Highsmith has been doing a visual study of America for 40 years and travels the United States for about 10 months a year.

Kansas

A sunflower field up close, Kansas

Classic field of waving wheat, Kansas

'Big Brutus' strip-mining shovel in southeast Kansas

Early 19th century medicines at the mansion of the purveyor, Alfred Seelye, in Abilene, Kansas

Jayhawk State Theatre sign, Topeka, Kansas

Basket of corn architectural detail on historic building in Topeka, Kansas

Ward Lockwood, "Pioneers in Kansas,” U.S. Courthouse, Wichita, Kansas

Richard Haines, "Kansas Farming,“ Wichita, Kansas

Side view of ‘Big Brutus' strip-mining shovel in southeast Kansas