LEFT Watch Michael Hartman, associate curator of American art, discuss the history of the images and the John Kobal Foundation Collection. (Video by Chris Johnson and Dartmouth's Office of Communications.)
John Kobal Foundation Collection
Consisting of over 6,000 photographs, the collection traces the history of Hollywood from approximately 1916 to the late twentieth century.
The John Kobal Foundation was set up to continue the work of its eponymous founder, who lived from 1940–1991. The foundation long divided its efforts between grant-making for photographers and promoting the photography collection that Kobal had amassed, which traces the history of Hollywood from approximately 1916 to the late twentieth century.
Much of the acquired collection consists of "vintage" prints produced around the time the negative was created, and some of it emerged from a project Kobal initiated in the 1970s, by which time he had acquired thousands of negatives from the studios that had long controlled their fate. He located most of the original photographers and arranged for them to create "life-time" prints from those negatives. There are also more recently printed images created specifically for the foundation to support a series of exhibitions it circulated in the past decade.
Related Exhibitions
- Made in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation
- Photographs from Hollywood's Golden Era: The John Kobal Foundation Collection
Related Stories
- Made in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation, Hood Quarterly, spring/summer 2010
- WATCH: Hollywood Photos at the Hood: The John Kobal Foundation Collection, Dartmouth's Office of Communications
Arthur F. Kales, American, 1882 - 1936
Thomas Meighan for Male and Female, Paramount Pictures
1919
2019.57.1
Ernest A. Bachrach, American, 1899 - 1973
Michèle Morgan, for RKO
1940
2019.57.16
John Engstead, American, 1909 - 1983
Marlon Brando for A Streetcar Named Desire, Warner Brothers
1950
2019.57.19
Unknown American, American
Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan for The Kid, Charlie Chaplin Productions
1921, printed late 20th century
2019.57.23
Attributed to James Manatt, American, 1896 - 1989
Buster Keaton for Go West, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1925
2019.57.27
Attributed to Milton Brown, American (born Russia), 1895 - 1948
Lillian Gish for The Wind, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1927, printed 2007-08
2019.57.29
Unknown American, American
Clarence Sinclair Bull photographing Clark Gable and Vivian Liegh for Gone with the Wind,...
1939
2019.57.36
Russell Ball, American, 1891 - 1942
Dolores del Río for The Trail of ’98, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1928
2019.57.4
Eugene Robert Richee, American, 1896 - 1972
Louise Brooks, for Paramount Pictures
1929, printed 2007-08
2019.57.7
Ernest Haas
Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl, Columbia Pictures
1968
2019.57.90