Georgetown alumnus Jeffrey S. Perry (C’1982, Parent’2015), a member of the Georgetown University Library Board, has made extraordinary gifts of vintage photographic prints to the Library for use in teaching and research. Beginning in 2010, Mr. Perry gave the first of his annual donations, and the collection now totals over 574 images.

With more than two dozen American and European artists, the collection is primarily 20th-century in scope. The collection includes global aerial landmarks by Marilyn Bridges; avant-garde Germany viewed by Ilse Bing and August Sander; World War II Russia captured at the front by the prominent photojournalist Dmitri Baltermants; and much more. There is an in-depth representation of important American street photographers such as Joel Meyerowitz, as well as mid-century American portraits and domestic groups by Doris Ulmann and Michael Disfarmer. This wonderful array of historic photographs provides a rich resource for students in history, art history, museum studies, and other fields of study. 

As part of my (Katie O'Hara) graduate studies in Art and Museum Studies and Art Collection Curatorial internship, I scanned over two-thirds of the photographs in the Perry Collection and created six themed online exhibitions. When creating them, I wanted to highlight the way the Perry Collection interacts with the rest of the Georgetown art collection. This idea came to me when I looked at Jacques Lowe’s Nun in Courtyard (1960) gelatin silver print that depicts Sister Corita Kent. I knew that we had one of Corita Kent’s works hanging up in the library already so I was excited about pairing photography subjects with works in the collection.

In cataloguing the vast donation, I found reoccurring themes in the photographs as well. Explore thee six themes that I discerned from the Perry Collection: I Find Letters from God: Nuns in the Perry Collection, Provincetown: An Art Colony, Childhood, Isolation, Beasts of Burden, and Art World. 

If you want to explore how the Perry Photographs relate to other works in the collection:
Provincetown: An Art Colony or Art World

If you want to explore how different photographers photographed the same subject:
I Find Letters from God: Nuns in the Perry Collection or Childhood  

If you want a photo essay experience:
Isolation or Beasts of Burden.