allowed the museum a huge advantage in the art
market during the 1980s at the time it was being
affected by contemporary art developments around
performance art and conceptual and color photogra-
phy. Individuals who had amassed photography col-
lections from 1839 though the 1950s became the
Getty’s source for rare and valuable objects.
In the photography department’s formative years,
Weston Naef, Chief Curator of Department of Photo-
graphs, stated his intentions: ‘‘I want to work slowly
and systematically toward forming the most compre-
hensive collection of photographs of all schools, all
periods, up until and through the 1930s.’’ (Schreiber,
1984, 93, 95) Yet the collection seemingly was estab-
lished overnight. This occurred when in 1984, the art
dealer Daniel Wolf was introduced to Naef and John
Walsh, the director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Daniel Wolf had first approached Naef with the col-
lections of legendary Detroit and New York-based
curator and collector Samuel Wagstaff and Chicago-
based Arnold Crane. Wagstaff’s collection included
18,000 objects and represented many important ni-
neteenth century figures. Arnold Crane’s collection
represented early French and British materials and
important twentieth-century modernist photogra-
phers such as Man Ray, La ́szlo ́Moholy-Nagy, and
Walker Evans. After securing these two collections,
additional purchases were made including early Eur-
opean photography (Bruno Biscofberger of Zurich),
portions of the Albert Renger-Patzsch archive (Ju ̈rgen
and Ann Wilde of Cologne), and 1920s and 1930s
Czech photographs (William Schurmann of Aachen).
While unusual at the time, the acquisition of
these materials under the auspices of a private
dealer that were in fact for a public museum caused
a seismic shift in attention from the East to the West
coast. By the official announcement of the depart-
ment’s creation in September 1984, the museum had
acquired some 30,000 objects, reportedly costing
$20 million.
Acquisition strategies at the J. Paul Getty Museum
are qualified by thematic divisions: How We Live,
Mythology, Natural World, People and Occupa-
tions, Religion, Science and Industry, and Where
We Live. These divisions shape public reception,
relying mostly on the ideas of cultural developments.
In the Department of Photographs, the diversity of
photographic systems and objects, including stereo-
graphs, graphic illustrations of photography’s influ-
ence, original negatives, prints by various techniques,
card photographs, and cased objects such as daguer-
reotypes and ambrotypes, highlights the interna-
tional phenomenon of photographic processes that
shaped artistic developments. Wagstaff’s collection
provided the substance for the department’s first
exhibition, Hanging Out: Stereographic Prints from
the Collection of Samuel Wagstaff, Jr. at the J. Paul
Getty Museum(1985). Experimental Photography:
Discovery and Invention(1989) was a later exhibition
and symposium that brought together photography’s
major figures who first attempted to connect photo-
graphy’s scientific endeavors of the nineteenth-cen-
tury with the fathers of modernist photography, such
as Alfred Stieglitz. Beaumont Newhall, Larry Schaaf,
Nancy Keeler, Eugenia Parry-Janis, and John Szar-
kowski were among the symposium’s participants,
whose presentations constituted a related publica-
tion. Other exhibitions have ranged from examina-
tions of nineteenth-century permutations, such as
Palette of Light: Handcrafted Photographs, 1898–
1919 (1994), to monographic exhibitions of the mas-
ters of photography: Euge`ne Atget, Gertrude Ka ̈seb-
ier, Albert Renger-Patsch, Walker Evans, Doris
Ulmann, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Manuel
A ́lvarez Bravo, and Frederick Sommer.
The exhibitions reflect a dedication to scholar-
ship and dissemination of communal knowledge
that is culturally biographic. The depth and diver-
sity of their collection allows for exploration of
acknowledged masters that increases understand-
ings of their timely contributions. Walker Evans,
widely acclaimed for his photographs from the
1930s and 1940s of America’s rural communities,
exemplifies the museum’s conscientious research.
The exhibitions, Walker Evans: The Getty Col-
lection(1995), Walker Evans: Signs (1998), and
Walker Evans, Cuba(2001) revealed his ability to
not only document America but to intuitively iden-
tify the structures that subtly characterize the
growth of industry.The American Tradition and
Walker Evans: Photographs from the Getty Collec-
tion(2001) actively demonstrated this strength of
the collection. Work chosen from 1850 to 1940
exhibited Evans with predecessors and contempor-
aries to discuss the insight photographers gave to
changes in advertising and immigration that trans-
formed rural towns and urban cities. This smaller
exhibition of rare photographs complemented a
larger exhibition that the museum hosted,Walker
Evans & Company: Works from the Museum of Mo-
dern Art.The J. Paul Getty Museum also holds the
work of nineteenth century English pictorialist
photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, and has
exhibited and published this work extensively.
The educative role of the J. Paul Getty Museum
is realized through symposiums and colloquiums
around important ideas that bring together emi-
nent authorities to engage in discussions and
debates on contemporary topics involving the col-
lection and the artists. An important component ofJ. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM