The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) has received an unprecedented gift of nearly 2,000 images spanning almost 200 years of photographic history. The donation arrives as the museum prepares to open 5 dedicated photography galleries in 2027.
This latest gift further expands VMFA’s already extensive photography collection and could see it held in the same nationally recognized regard as other major US photography collections.
Girl with Bicycle, in the Coombe, Dublin, 1966, Evelyn Hofer (American, born Germany, 1922–2009), dye transfer print (Image credit: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Joy of Giving Something Inc., 2026.371)
The 1,986-image donation forms what is essentially a survey of photographic history from the 19th century to the present day.
The extensive collection represents around 200 bodies of work from more than 450 artists, including some of the most celebrated photographers in US history, such as Alfred Stieglitz (1865-1946), Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) and Walker Evans (1903-1975).
French photographers are strongly represented, too, with the collection also featuring rare daguerreotypes by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804-1892) and prints by Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884).
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Parc de Sceaux (Park of Seals), 1925, Eugène Atget (French, 1856–1928), albumen silver print (Image credit: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Joy of Giving Something Inc., 2026.360)
The donation was made by the non-profit foundation, Joy of Giving Something (JGS), and draws from the extensive photography collection of Howard Stein, a financier who began acquiring photographs in the 1980s and founded JGS in 1998.
Stein’s collection has long been recognized as one of the most significant private photography holdings in the United States.
JGS previously made a donation to VMFA in 2023 that included Paul Strand’s Photographs of Mexico (1940) and Larry Clark’s Tulsa (1980), and the latest gift means that the majority of the Stein collection now belongs to the museum.
Tower of Jewels (Magnolia Blossom), 1925, Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883–1976), gelatin silver print (Image credit: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Joy of Giving Something, Inc., 2026.359)
VMFA hopes that the timely donation will help it tell a more comprehensive story of the medium – one that stretches from the earliest days of photography to contemporary practice.
An exact opening date for the new galleries is yet to be given, but they form part of the museum’s wider renovation plans slated for completion by 2029.
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