Highlights from Cornell University's Photography Collections
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About this collection
This digital collection features selected highlights from photographic collections housed in multiple repositories at Cornell University: The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, the Library's Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, and the Anthropology Collections.
The 425 images are organized in five thematic sub-groups that showcase selected areas of Cornell's collection strengths: Asian Studies; History of Photography; Legacies of Discrimination; Labor and Work; and Landscape and the Environment.
Supported as part of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and Cornell University Library in 2017, this digital collection encourages exploration within and across topics documented in separate physical collections on Cornell University's Ithaca campus.
Historical context
Contextual essays for each area of thematic focus can be found on the digital exhibition page for the collection.
Using the collection
The entire collection can be browsed or searched by keyword. Alternatively, the each of the thematic sets can be searched or browsed independently from the digital exhibition page.
Rights information for each image is provided as part of its accompanying descriptive data.
Questions about this digital collection can be directed to the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at rareref@cornell.edu.
More information
- Collection steward
- Katherine Reagan, Ernest Stern Curator, Rare Books & Manuscripts
- Metadata creation
- Kate Addelman-Frankel, Amanda Kiesel, Chloe McLaren
- Funding
- Crossing the Photographic Divide: Mining and Making Meaning, funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2017-2022.
- Credits
- This collection overview was last reviewed in 2025.
- Collection sources
- Exhibits featuring items from this collection