Nelson-Atkins Museum receives the Hallmark Photography Collection

Hot on the heels of last week's Times article about gifting private collections comes the news that Hallmark's corporate photography collection numbering some 6500 prints by 900 American photographers has landed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the location of Hallmark's headquarters office. The acquisition is a combination gift & purchase from Hallmark. I'm still trying to figure out why it wasn't a full-on gift and required some portion to be purchased, but the Byzantine strictures of corporate giving are frequently beyond fathom. The collection will be featured in new galleries specifically designed and designated to the exhibition of photography scheduled to be opened in 2007. Hallmark's collection is nearly as large as the Gilman Paper Collection that the Met acquired last May, though Hallmark's collection covers the full history of photography while the Gilman collection focuses mainly on the first century.

The collection was published in book form in 1999.