Smithsonian, others to get Ebony, Jet photo archive in $30M deal
WASHINGTON — The photo archive of Ebony and Jet magazines chronicling African American history is set to head to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and other cultural institutions.
The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation are buying the archive for $30 million as part of an auction to pay off secured creditors of Johnson Publishing Company.
“We felt it was imperative to preserve these images, to give them the exposure they deserve and make them readily available to the public,” said the Ford Foundation’s president, Darren Walker. A judge in Chicago tentatively approved the deal Thursday.
The foundations plan to donate the more than 4 million prints and negatives — considered one of the most significant collections of photographs cataloging African American life.
“There is no greater repository of the history of the modern African American experience than this archive,” said James Cuno, president of The J. Paul Getty Trust. “Saving it and making it available to the public is a great honor and a grave responsibility.”
Johnson Publishing filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in April. The former magazine publisher sold its Ebony and Jet magazines three years ago. The Chicago-based company has tried since 2015 to sell its photo archive, once appraised at $46 million.
The auction recovers money owed secured creditors filmmaker George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, whose Capital V Holdings loaned $12 million to Johnson Publishing.
The collection chronicles the civil rights movement and the lives of prominent figures such as Billie Holiday, Muhammad Ali and Coretta Scott King at her husband’s funeral. It was Jet in 1955 that published a photograph of the open coffin of Emmett Till.
The acquisition will preserve the archive “for the benefit of scholars, the public and future generations forever,” said the MacArthur Foundation’s president, Julia Stasch.