MUUS Collection Acquires Todd Webb Archive of Postwar Photography

The MUUS Collection has acquired the complete archive of American photographer Todd Webb (1905–2005), known for his images of postwar New York City and Paris. The archive includes approximately 15,000 prints, 50,000 negatives, journals, and ephemera. Webb, a Detroit native, lost his savings in the 1929 Crash and began photography after a 1940 workshop with Ansel Adams. He served as a Navy photographer during WWII, then moved to New York, befriending Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Walker Evans, and Beaumont Newhall. In the 1950s, two Guggenheim Fellowships funded his walk from New York to San Francisco along pioneer trails. He also photographed in the UK, Papua New Guinea, France, and Africa. His portraits include Berenice Abbott, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, and Lisette Model. MUUS Executive Director Sophie Wright noted Webb's first solo exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York in 1946. The archive will be digitized and made accessible via Muuseum, joining holdings of Rosalind Fox Solomon, Larry Fink, and Deborah Turbeville.