Foundation Consortium Acquires Historic African American Photographic Archive
A consortium of four foundations — the Andrew W. Mellon, Ford, and MacArthur foundations and the J. Paul Getty Trust — has announced the acquisition of an historic African-American photographic archive, pending court approval and the closing of the sale.
Acquired for $30 million as part of an auction of the assets of Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, the archive includes more than four million prints and negatives and is considered to be the most significant collection of photographs cataloguing African-American life in the twentieth century. The consortium will donate the archive to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Getty Research Institute, and other institutions to ensure broad access for the general public as well as its use by scholars, researchers, journalists, and others...