The Bettmann Archive is a collection of over 18 million photographs and images, some going back to the United States

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

and including some of the best known U.S. historic images. The Archive also includes many images from Europe and elsewhere. It was founded in 1936 by Otto Bettmann (1903–1998), a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

who immigrated to the United States in 1935. He actively expanded his collection by advertising in magazines, e.g. in the Winter 1959 issue of ''

Film Quarterly ''Film Quarterly'' (FQ), published by University of California Press, is a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media. When FQ was launched in 1945 (then called ''Hollywood Quarterly''), it was considered "the first serious ...

'' "Wanting to buy: Old movie stills - ca. 1915 to 1935; early comedies -- well-known stars and productions." In 1960, Bettmann moved it from his apartment at 215 East 57th Street, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to the Tishman Building. In 1981, Bettmann sold the archive to the Kraus Thomson Organization. In 1995, the archive was sold to Corbis, a digital

stock photography Stock photography is the supply of photographs that are often licensed for specific uses. The stock photo industry, which began to gain hold in the 1920s, has established models including traditional macrostock photography, midstock photography, ...

company founded by

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

. Restrictions of access to the collection arising from this sale were described in the editorial "Goodbye to All That" in the May 2001 issue of ''American Heritage'' magazine. Between late-2001 and March 2002, to preserve the photos and negatives, Corbis moved the archive from Manhattan to the Iron Mountain National Underground Storage Facility, a former

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quarry located 220 feet (67 m) below ground in western

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. The temperature of the storage room is gradually being lowered to -4 °F (-20 °C), which was determined by film preservationist Henry Wilhelm to be the optimal temperature for the long-term storage of the archive. At this temperature, the collection will degrade 500 times more slowly in than it did in Manhattan. Meanwhile, Corbis has been scanning the negatives into digital form as they are ordered by clients. The archive began with Otto Bettmann's personal collection of 15,000 images which he brought with him in suitcases when he escaped from Nazi Germany. Over the years, it acquired other collections, including the Gendreau Collection of Americana in 1967, the

Underwood & Underwood Underwood & Underwood was a producer and distributor of stereoscopic and other photographic images, and later was a pioneer in the field of news bureau photography. History The company was founded in 1881 in Ottawa, Kansas, by two brothers, Elmer ...

Collection of material from late 19th century to World War I in 1971, and the

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...

collection in 1984.

Louis Stern Fine Arts Louis Stern Fine Arts is an art gallery located at 9002 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, California, in the heart of the city’s Avenue of Art and Design. History and development Louis Stern Fine Arts was founded in 1988 by Louis Stern, a s ...

exhibited a selection of works from the Bettman Archive in 1999. Today,

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. (stylized as gettyimages) is a visual media company and supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video, and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three mark ...

had taken over the Bettmann Archive before

Visual China Group Visual China Group Co., Ltd. (VCG) is a Chinese photo and media agency. Established in 2000, it is a supplier of stock multimedia content to the commercial media industry. VCG is currently the largest stock image and media footage provider in Chi ...

acquired Corbis in 2016.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Photo archives in the United States 1936 establishments in the United States

References

Further reading

External links