IT WAS A MARRIAGE MADE IN CYBERheaven. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who amassed his fortune by anticipating the computer future, announced last week that he had bought the incomparable archive of Otto Bettmann, who made his fortune excavating the photographic past. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but it was estimated to be millions of dollars.
With that single stroke, Gates captured one of the world's great collections of documentary images: more than 16 million drawings, artworks, news photographs and other illustrations, including such familiar and haunting treasures as Mathew Brady's Civil War pictures and the photos of Rosa...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
