Photographic Heritage Association/Photo Archives Belong in Rochester (PHA/PABIR) Records
Scope and Content Note
The Photographic Heritage Association/Photo Archives Belong in Rochester (PHA/PABIR) collection consists of records collected by board members. The records document both the PABIR’s efforts to organize, fundraise, and finance their organization as well as raise public awareness of the GEH/IMP photo archive crisis through letter writing, proposal writing, research of alternative sites, and press releases and articles in media publications. The records range from 1947-1993. The bulk of the records are from 1984-1992, the active period of the PHA/PABIR organization. The articles in Series 7 provide a complete picture of the unfolding issues and problems of the George Eastman House photo archive crisis in Rochester and the players and steps taken to address it.
Dates
- Creation: 1947-1993
- Creation: 1984 - 1992
Access
There are no known restrictions on the use of this collection.
Use
Permission to publish, reproduce, distribute, or use in any current or future manifestations must be obtained in writing from the Rochester Public Library Local History & Genealogy Division.
Historical Note
The Photographic Heritage Association/Photo Archives Belong in Rochester (PHA/PABIR), a grassroots citizen’s action committee, was organized several days after the vote by the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography (GEH/IMP) to offer its 500,000-photographic item collection to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History due to a continuing budget deficit. The PHA/PABIR wrote their draft charter in February 1985 and received not-for-profit incorporation on April 22, 1985. Their by-laws were approved March 15, 1986. The organization consisted of a Steering Committee (later renamed the Board of Directors) of 12 members and a larger group of concerned citizens. Their goal was to keep the photographic collections in Rochester. To achieve this, they initiated a letter-writing campaign, studied alternative sites, and searched for financial sponsors for a building to house the collection which they included in a proposal to the GEH/IMP board. By August 1992, after the GEH/IMP found the funding to keep the collection in Rochester and construct a new building to house it, the PHA/PABIR was no longer necessary and ceased to exist.
Extent
3.33 Cubic Feet (10 document boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Photographic Heritage Association/Photo Archives Belong in Rochester (PHA/PABIR), a grassroots citizen’s action committee, was organized after the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography (GEH/IMP) decided to offer its 500,000-photographic item collection to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History due to a continuing budget deficit. Their goal was to keep the photographic collections in Rochester. The records document both the PHA/PABIR’s efforts to organize, fundraise, and finance their organization and comprise administrative records, resource files, correspondence, fundraising, financial documents, newsletters, and newspaper clippings.
Arrangement
The collection has been divided into seven series: Series 1: Administrative Records; Series 2: Resource Files; Series 3: Correspondence; Series 4: Grants and Fundraising; Series 5: Finances; Series 6: George Eastman House/International Museum of Photography Photo Archive; Series 7: Publications.
Index
A chronological index to PHA/PABIR Records is located in Box 1/Folder 14.
Custodial History
Photo Archives Belong in Rochester (PABIR) Board Member files were sorted into three sets in 1992-1993 by Liz Allen, Rochester Institute of Technology MFA graduate student, under the direction of Richard Margolis for donation to the Rochester Public Library, George Eastman House, and the Archives of American Art (Smithsonian Institution) (see Memorandum from Richard Margolis to PHA Board of Directors dated 4/4/1992 in Intrarorganizational Correspondence File, Box 3). It is unknown when the files were donated to Rochester Public Library or to the other two organizations.
Processing Information
Processed by Mary Jo Gigliotti. This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Documentary Heritage Program of the New York State Archives, a program of the State Education Department.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Mary Jo Gigliotti
- Date
- 2/2013
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Sponsor
- This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Documentary Heritage Program of the New York State Archives, a program of the State Education Department.
Repository Details
Part of the Local History & Genealogy Division Repository
115 South Ave.
Rochester 14604 USA
585-428-8370
585-428-8353 (Fax)
lochistref@libraryweb.org