Collection Examination, Storage Proposal and Historical Analysis of the Louise Dahl-Wolfe Photography Collection at the Museum at FIT

The focus of this qualifying paper is the Louise Dahl-Wolfe (1895-1989) fashion photography collection at the Museum at FIT (MFIT) in New York City. This collection was donated to MFIT by Dahl-Wolfe in November 1974. It primarily consists of carbro printed color proofs of photographs published in Harper's Bazaar magazine between 1937 and 1958. Also included in this donation were hundreds of transparencies created using Kodachrome film, as well as a small selection of copper printing plates. These color photographs represent only a portion of Dahl-Wolfe's career in fashion photography and the remainder of her work, as well as an extensive archive of related ephemera, is currently held at The Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona.;The Library of Congress states there are four basic steps to properly manage a photographic collection: inventory, appraisal, cataloging, and housing. This document will include a comprehensive overview of the contents of the collection, assess its immediate needs, and provide a multi-faceted re-housing proposal. In conjunction with this paper, a thorough cataloging project was conducted of the entire collection and an overview of that process is also included in this work. The final chapter is a historical analysis of the contents of the photographs as they relate to the field of fashion studies, particularly outlining their ability to document the changing tides of the American fashion industry during World War II.;The aim of the project is to ensure the collections long-term preservation and accessibility for use in research and exhibitions for years to come as well as accreting its value to the field of fashion studies and the collection of the Museum at FIT.