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the major figures in photo-history, the collection
also boasts one of the largest daguerreotype collec-
tions in the world, a large number of early British
and French photography, nearly 500 vintage prints
by Euge`ne Atget, and 20,000 prints and negatives
bequeathed by the pictorialist photographer Alvin
Langdon Coburn. Both Alfred Stieglitz and Edward
Steichen donated large bodies of work, the latter
numbering nearly 4,300 vintage prints. The East-
man House holdings of Lewis Hine’s photography
are considered definitive. The collection also encom-
passes more vernacular and popular forms of
photography such as personal albums, stereocards,
travel albums, astrological images, lantern slides,
and press and war photographs.
http://www.eastmanhouse.org

Library of Congress

Both the nation’s oldest federal institution devoted
to culture and the world’s largest library, the Library
of Congress in Washington, D.C., has collected
photographs since 1845. Since then its holdings
have grown to include over 13 million photographs,
which include negatives, transparencies, and several
thousand related books and periodicals. Its particu-
lar mission is to amass pictorial documents of the
people, achievements, environments, and history of
the United States. The Library claims an unsur-
passed collection of photographs of the following:
the American Civil War, Lewis Hine’s work for the
National Child Labor Committee, American archi-
tecture, Pictorialism, the Farm Security Administra-
tion, American news agencies, and photojournalism
(e.g., the archives of such periodicals asLookandU.S.
News and World Report).
http://www.loc.gov

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
(MMA) acquired photographs as early as 1928
when Alfred Stieglitz made the first of a series of
gifts to the institution in the form of 22 of his own
photographs. Over the years, curators of the (then)
Prints Department added to the collection. In 1992 a
separate Department of Photographs was estab-
lished. Today the collection of more than 20,000 is
grounded by four collections acquired over the years.
Stieglitz, the museum’s first photographic patron
proved to be one of its most generous and be-
queathed to the museum over 600 photographs
from his personal collection. These photographs
encompass icons of the Photo-Secession and Pictori-

alism, including three of Edward Steichen’s painterly

and differently toned prints ofThe Flatiron. In 1987,

the Ford Motor Company donated their collection of

European and American avant-garde photography.

Strongest in the period between the two world wars,

works by Berenice Abbott, Brassaı ̈,WalkerEvans,

Andre ́Ke ́rtesz, Man Ray, and La ́szlo ́Moholy-Nagy

form this collection’s core. More recently, the Walker

Evans Archive of negatives, personal papers, and

collected ephemera joined the department’s holdings

in 1994 and the Rubel Collection of early British

photography was acquired in 1997. Works by such

artists as Adam Fuss, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and

Hiroshi Sugimoto represent the MMA’s commitment

to contemporary photography.

http://www.metmuseum.org

Museum of Contemporary Photography

Established at Columbia College in Chicago in 1976,

it represents a concentrated collection of post-war

photography made in the United States. Among its

6,000-plus photographs are the works of such major

figures as Harry Callahan, Barbara Crane, Dor-

othea Lange, David Plowden, Jerry Uselmann, and

Louise Dahl-Wolfe. The MCP is deeply devoted to

the work of photographers from the Midwest. Since

1982, its ‘‘Midwest Photographers Project’’ has reg-

ularly highlighted the work of both established and

emerging regional photographers.

http://www.mocp.org

Museum of Modern Art

Thefirstandfrequentlyconsideredtobethemost

influential of all photography departments, MoMA,

New York’s first photography acquisition occurred

in 1930. The department was formed 10 years later.

The collection has grown to encompass over 25,000

works from the dawn of photography to the pre-

sent, many by the recognized masters of the photo-

graphic canon.

http://www.moma.org

Museum of Photographic Arts

Founded in 1983 and located in San Diego, Califor-

nia, the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) is yet

another museum devoted exclusively to photography.

MoPA in fact collects, as it calls it, ‘‘the entire spec-

trum of the photographic medium.’’ In its collecting,

the Museum attempts to trace the entire history of

photography and also focuses on the materials and

documents related to the history and process of

MUSEUMS: UNITED STATES