A group of 252 works spanning the influential Black photographer’s long career will be housed at the Washington HBCU’s research center.

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Howard University acquires landmark collection of Gordon Parks photos
The 252 photographs are organized into 15 study sets chronicling Parks's trailblazing career and the richness of African American life.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Howard University acquires landmark collection of Gordon Parks photos

A group of 252 works spanning the influential Black photographer’s long career will be housed at the Washington HBCU’s research center

By Peggy McGlone
Yesterday at 6:00 a.m. EDT



The 1963 March on Washington. (Gordon Parks/Gordon Parks Foundation)

At the start of his prolific and influential career, photographer Gordon Parks documented everyday life in D.C., including events and students at Howard University. ... Eighty years later, the historically Black university in the heart of the District has acquired one of the most comprehensive collections of Parks’s photographs. The trove of 252 images represents both his artistic achievement and his significance as a documentarian of African American life in the second half of the 20th century. Parks died in 2006 at the age of 93.

The Gordon Parks Legacy Collection will be housed in the university’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, where students and faculty — from history, African American studies and the arts — can access the images for classwork, research, exhibitions and public programs.

The acquisition raises the profile of the university and will lead to important research and exhibitions, says Benjamin Talton, director of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. The collection, beginning with 1940s portraits of Black residents of Chicago and Minneapolis and ending with a 1990 portrait of Spike Lee, is an important addition to an archive that includes materials from Amiri Baraka, Mary Frances Berry, Paul Robeson and Frederick Douglass.

“Gordon Parks is central to telling the story of African American life, and bringing humanity to that narrative,” Talton said. “Howard University is at the center of the African American experience globally. Obviously Black life meant something to Gordon Parks. To have a Gordon Parks collection at Howard University is like a foot in a shoe, and I think he’d be pleased.”

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By Peggy McGlone
Peggy McGlone is a reporter for The Washington Post, covering arts in the Washington region. Before coming to The Post, she worked for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey as a features writer and beat reporter covering arts and education. Twitter https://twitter.com/PeggyMcGlone