Beaumont Newhall (1908 - 1993) was an influential curator, art historian, writer and photographer. His The History of Photography remains one of the most significant accounts in the field and has become a classic photo history textbook. Newhall was the recipient of numerous awards and accolades for his accomplishments in the study of photo history.

Childhood and Education

Beaumont Newhall was born in Lynn, Massachusetts on June 22,1908. Some of his earliest childhood memories revolved around photography. He recalled watching his mother in her darkroom as she developed her own glass plate images as well as dipping his fingers into the chemical trays to see what they tasted like.

Although Newhall wanted to study film and photography in college, the subjects were not being taught as separate disciplines when he enrolled at Harvard University. Instead, he chose to study art history and museum studies. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

While at Harvard, Newhall was greatly influenced by his instructor Paul J. Sachs. In 1931, after receiving his Master's Degree from Harvard, Sachs helped Newhall obtain a position as lecutrer at the Pennsylvania Museum of Art in Philadelphia.

Newhall continued his graduate studies at the Institute of Art and Archaeology of the University of Paris, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. He worked briefly for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Massachusett's branch of the PWA as a doctoral candidate. Because of financial difficulties during the Depression, Newhall was not able to devote himself to his studies, and eventually accepted a position at the Museum of Modern Art as a stable source of income. The central lobby of the museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art, often referred to simply as The Met, is one of the worlds largest and most important art museums, located on the eastern edge of Central Park in Manhattan, New York, United States. ... PWA may stand for: Pacific Western Airlines Pirates With Attitude, a warez release group Public Works Administration, a New Deal program under Franklin D. Roosevelt Professional Windsurfers Association [1] Pagan Webcrafters Association [2] Portfolio of Water Actions [3] Professional Womens Association [4] formerly: Portuguese West Africa - (now Angola) This... The Great Depression was a global economic slump that began in 1929 and bottomed in 1933. ... View across garden, in new MoMA building by Yoshio Taniguchi. ...

The Museum of Modern Art

Newhall's career at the Museum of Modern Art began in 1935 when he became its librarian. In 1937, he was invited by Alfred Barr Jr., the director of MOMA, to develop the first comprehnsive retrospective of photographic works. The exhibition that Newhall mounted was pivotal in securing photography's place within the arts. It's accompanying catalog, The History of Photography, was the first account of the first 100 years of photographic history that gave equal credit to its technical virtues, as well as its value as an art form. View across garden, in new MoMA building by Yoshio Taniguchi. ... Alfred H. Barr, Jr. ... General Electric GE90-115B fanblade, on display at MOMA. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. ...

In 1940, Newhall became the first director of the Museum of Modern Art's photography department. View across garden, in new MoMA building by Yoshio Taniguchi. ...

Newhall served as curator of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House from 1948 to 1958, then its director from 1958 to 1971. While at the Eastman House, Newhall was responsible for amassing one of the greatest photographic collections in the world.

The Newhall Library

Beaumont Newhall married Nancy Wynne, a notable photography critic who worked in his place as curator at MOMA during his service in World War II. Beaumont and Nancy had one son, Theo Christopher Newhall.

The private research collection of Beaumont and Nancy Newhall was donated to the College of Santa Fe and has become the core of the college's Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Library.

References

http://www.livingtreasures.kxx.com/bios/beau.html

http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/newhal65.htm

http://www.photographydealers.com/siteindex.html