{"id":427,"date":"2023-03-22T16:16:13","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T16:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library-dev.umbc.edu\/wp\/specialcollections\/?page_id=427"},"modified":"2025-09-12T19:21:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T19:21:44","slug":"photography-collections","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/collections\/photography-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"Photography Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UMBC Special Collections inaugurated the Photography Collections in 1974 following a donation from Baltimore pictorialist photographer Edward L. Bafford of a print of Sun Rays-Paula, Berlin<\/em> by the eminent American artist Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946). During the ensuing five decades, our holdings have expanded to include over 7 million photographs ranging from proto-photographic materials to glass and film negatives and contemporary prints. The Photography Collections illustrate the variety of formal, technological, and conceptual strategies employed throughout the medium\u2019s nearly 200 year history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our holdings include a wide variety of formats, processes, techniques, genres, and movements of photography, which help to show the development and social impact of the medium. As a teaching collection, our photographs and photographic equipment are available for researchers, class visits, and special interest groups to view in our Reading Room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography Collection Holdings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Photography Collections offer insight into how artists across time have explored the aesthetic and expressive possibilities of the medium. We have significant holdings of prominent forces in the field, including: Ansel Adams, Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Amos Badertscher, Barbara Crane, Cary Beth Cryor, Judy Dater, Larry Fink, Robert Frank, Roland Freeman, Francis Frith, Ralph Gibson, Philippe Halsman, Lotte Jacobi, Syl Labrot, David Seymour (Chim), Aaron Siskind, John Thomson, Alice Wells, Brett Weston, Minor White, Garry Winogrand, and hundreds of other artists. For a complete list of photographers represented in the collection, see the Photographers and Collections Index. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Particular strengths of our collections comprise social documentary photography, including over 5400 photographs of child labor by Lewis Hine; Civil War photographs; the mining photographs (1870-1895) of George Bretz; nineteenth-century travel photography and photograph albums; painted tintypes; American modernism; and regional photography, with many historical images of Baltimore and Maryland and photographs by Maryland-based photographers. In this regard, the photographic archive of the Baltimore Sun <\/em>newspaper, which includes negatives and press prints, is especially significant. Our collections also include tens of thousands of University Photographs which document the growth of campus, student life, and faculty and staff that have contributed to UMBC since the groundbreaking in 1965.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our archival holdings in photography provide researchers with rich resources for study of individual artists and include materials such as negatives, contact sheets, work and exhibition prints, digital image files, account and day books, and personal papers. Highlights include collections pertaining to: Baltimore Camera Club, Kerry Coppin, Robert W. Fichter, Grancel Fitz, Mildred Grossman, Hella Hammid, Lejaren Hiller, Sam Holden, Richard Jaquish, Stephen Marc, and the Mark Rice collection on the male nude. A comprehensive list of our photographic archives with links to collection finding aids can be found below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to images, our holdings of equipment and apparatus reveal the progression of the technology of the photographic medium. These materials are supplemented by the Edward L. Bafford Photographic Book Collection, which encompasses rare and historical books and periodicals, artists books, technical manuals, exhibition catalogues, and writings on the history and theory of the medium. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Robert Fichter, “A New Photograph of a Successful Weapon of War,\u201d 1970. Cyanotype, gum bichromate print. Robert W. Fichter collection, Collection 132.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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Search for Photographs <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Search tip:<\/strong> On this page<\/a>, Under “Content to search,” check off the box next to Photos. Then enter your search terms. You can search by collection, creator (e.g. photographer), title, subjects, format, description, location, and accession number. When searching by name, use quotes and Last name, First Name. Please use quotes for phrases. Use AND if you want both words. Ex: “Hine, Lewis”; Ex: “coal miners”; Ex: Robert AND Frank. If there is a digital version, your results will have a link to the digital image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photographers & Collections Index<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A browsing index to the photography holdings<\/a> in Special Collections with links to records and to images in the Digital Collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UMBC Digital Collections<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

UMBC Digital Collections<\/a> are composed of selected materials from the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Currently, the majority of the digital collections draw upon the rich and unique holdings of the Special Collections and Archives. Items cover a broad range of topics and include photographs, the Retriever Weekly newspaper, electronic theses and dissertations from UMBC candidates, Theatre Department programs, posters, playbills, and other ephemera. See Digital Collections<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

University Photographs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Search tip:<\/strong> Use the Special Collections Search<\/a> and enter University Photographs as the “Collection title” to limit your search to the University Photographs<\/a>. Box level records are available through the Special Collections Search, as well as item-level records for any digitized photos. If you would only like to browse our digitized photographs, please use the Digital Collections search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n