Posted September 24, 2004.

Mellon Gives Harvard $2.1 Million for Photo Preservation

Harvard University Library will establish a comprehensive program to preserve the university’s holdings of some 7.5 million photographs, thanks to a $2.1-million gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The funds will come in the form of a $1.25-million matching grant to endow the position of senior photograph conservator in the library’s Weissman Preservation Center, as well as $850,000 to launch the project during a six-year start-up period.

In announcing the gift September 23, Library Director Sidney Verba commented that the preservation program “will ensure that Harvard’s monumental collections of photographs can be made available for widespread use today, and are preserved for future generations.”

Harvard’s photographic holdings in its libraries, archives, museums, and teaching hospitals span the history of the medium from daguerrotypes to digital images. In 2003, the Weissman staff completed an assessment of the nature and condition of the university’s photo collections.

Posted September 24, 2004.