Image description: In June 2011, First Lady Michelle Obama met with Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa, at Mandela’s home in Houghton, South Africa.

The photo is part of Pete Souza’s picks for the year 2011 in images. Pete Souza is the Chief Official White House Photographer and Director of the White House Photography Office. View all of his 2011 photo selections.

Photo by Samantha Appleton, White House

Image description: This image, titled “Terrific Pounding Of German Lines by British Howitzers in the Battle of the Somme in 1917,” was published in the New York Times. During the World War I era (1914-18), leading newspapers took advantage of a new printing process that dramatically altered their ability to reproduce images. Rotogravure printing, which produced richly detailed, high quality illustrations—even on inexpensive newsprint paper—was used to create vivid new pictorial sections. Publishers that could afford to invest in the new technology saw sharp increases both in readership and advertising revenue.

Photo from the Library of Congress

Image description: This photo, circa 1889, shows a ghost scaring two men. From the mid-1800s to early-1900s, “spirit photographs” were popular and easy to fake. Learn more about spirit photographs.

Photo from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Image description: The original caption for this image is, “New York City celebrating the surrender of Japan. They threw anything and kissed anybody in Times Square., 08/14/1945.”

Photo from the National Archives’ Still Picture Records Section

Image description: This photograph from 1943 shows a woman in Tennessee operating a hand drill while working on a “Vengeance” dive bomber.

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division