2012-2013 Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series

2011-2012 Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series

2010-2011 Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series

Searchable database of the photography collection of over 1200 images

RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD American, 1925-1972
Untitled, 1960
Gelatin silver print
7 5/8 x 7 3/4"
Purchase: Gaines Challenge Fund

RUSSELL LEE
American, 1903-1986
FSA Client with Three Sons, Caruthersville, Missouri, August, 1938
Gelatin silver print
Anonymous gift

THE ROBERT C. MAY BEQUEST

The Museum's noteworthy photography collection contains works by photographers such as Eugène Atget, Paul Caponigro, Jan Groover, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Cindy Sherman, Aaron Siskind, Edward Steichen, and Garry Winogrand. It was decidedly enriched by the 1993 Robert C. May Bequest, which added important photographs by internationally-prominent photographers such as Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Brassaï, Robert Frank, John Pfahl, and Paul Strand in addition to May's archive of more than 800 of his own photographs. Of special note is an important archive of more than 500 photographs by Doris Ulmann. The Robert C. May Photography Endowment Fund supports the purchase of works by, according to the wishes of the donor, "photographers known on a national level." Acquisitions have included: works by Farm Security Administration photographers Marion Post Wolcott and Arthur Rothstein; examples of "street photography" by Helen Levitt, Louis Faurer, Max Yavno, and Weegee; diaristic works by Danny Lyon and Larry Clark; vintage modernist works by Harry Callahan, Harold Edgerton, and Arthur Siegel; and works by contemporary photographers Lynn Geesaman, Lauren Greenfield, Keith Carter, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, and Peter Brown.