Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin

Affinity Groups

Friends of Photography

Friends of Photography is a group of supporters with a keen interest in photography and the Ransom Center's photography collections. Events and meetings enable members to deepen their involvement in photography and the photography community, and to develop relationships with the Ransom Center's curatorial staff. The group provides financial support for the acquisition of photographs for the collections.

In addition to the world's first permanent photograph from nature by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, the collection features significant holdings of such notable early photographers as William Henry Fox Talbot, D. O. Hill and Robert Adamson, Roger Fenton, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, O. G. Rejlander, Henry Peach Robinson, Peter Henry Emerson, Paul Martin, and Christina Broom, among others. This range and diversity extends throughout the twentieth century with artists such as Alvin Langdon Coburn, E. O. Goldbeck, Walker Evans, Russell Lee, Sir Cecil Beaton, Fritz Henle, Ruth Robertson, Eliot Elisofon, Arnold Newman, and David Douglas Duncan.

If you are interested in becoming a member please contact David Coleman, Curator of Photography.

Learn more about the photography collections

Friends of Film

Friends of Film is a group of supporters with a special interest in the Ransom Center's film collections. Meeting several times a year for exhibitions, lectures, private tours, and previews of new acquisitions, the group provides financial support exclusively for the acquisition of materials for the film collections. Friends of Film members have close contact with the curatorial staff and enjoy by-appointment viewing privileges of the Ransom Center's collections.

The film collections include more than 10,000 scripts for film, television, and radio; more than 15,000 posters, lobby cards, and other advertising materials; and over a million photographs, including film stills, portrait and publicity photographs, set and location reference stills, makeup and wardrobe stills, and candid, behind-the-scenes photographs. Virtually all of the collections include correspondence, memos, production records, or business records. The majority of the collections concern mainstream Hollywood filmmaking from the silent era through the present day. Hollywood's Golden Age (1930–1950) is particularly well represented. Other archives relate to the Texas film industry, television, and radio. Notable archives include those of David O. Selznick, Robert De Niro, Gloria Swanson, and Mike Wallace.

If you are interested in becoming a member please contact Steve Wilson, Associate Curator of Film.

Learn more about the film collections