Great!
Thank you to the leaders of the 4 foundations for purchasing this amazing collection! Your unselfish motives are greatly appreciated!
10
This is wonderful news. After reading the story in the NYT I hoped that this would be the outcome. Possibly a book can be published at some point with many of these fabulous photos.
3
Spectacular! Wonderful news. Can’t wait to see more of these stellar pics
4
This is fantastic news! I look forward to viewing these archival photos as I am sure do many others. While it's unfortunate that the cost was extravagant, the value in terms of knowledge and understanding is incalculable! As far as celebrities not engaging in this endeavor, they continue to not impact this mid-westerner's life!
6
A National Treasure! Saved for future generations. Thank goodness!
4
The trustees that are named in the purchase should be trustworthy as handlers of this irreplaceable archive. Let's hope the Smithsonian does the same.
1
I am so excited to see these photo's. I am sure I'll be taking a few museum trips to support this collection.
2
This is great news for scholars and the general public. My hope is that they become part of the Smithsonian collection so that everyone can access them. Thanks so much to these groups for recognizing and preserving this treasure.
13
How wonderful to read some good news. Thanks to these four historically astute -- and generous -- foundations, a treasure will be saved for the future. Kudos to them and to those news outlets that picked up the story and made the peril to this archive public.
18
While it's a relief that these foundations saved the archive from going into private hands, it's disheartening that none of the ultra-rich people in arts and entertainment or sports came forward to do this. $30 million is chump change for many celebrities, and they could have joined forces and each put up less. Imagine the positive publicity.
17
I agree with you. I had hoped that some in entertainment/sports who claimed to collect art would consider acquiring the archive. Rather than ending in private hands, this is an excellent result.
5
@Elizabeth A
I understand your sentiment- I wondered the same. But, now I'm glad it didn't happen that way because there would have been no guarantee the priceless archive would have been shared with the world or donated. A celebrity (or any rich private investor) would have received publicity and nothing would have prevented them from monitizing the collection by profiting from copyright usage.
2
@Elizabeth A
Perhaps it's not too late, or awaiting a joint fundraising outreach by these foundation, for such a wealthy patron to "buy" naming rights to this signal collection?
It is interesting to see the picture of Pearl Bailey and Billie Holliday. I was very fortunate to have seen Ms. Bailey at a concert in Brooklyn during the 1960s. I never saw Billie Holliday in concert but I own many of her lps. Ebony sure has an interesting trove of historic photographs of America's great artists.
9