Gordon Parks was no stranger to poverty. He grew up the youngest child of 15 to become a celebrated photographer and the first African American to break into fashion photography. Claire O’Neill explains his rise from depression-era public works projects to Vogue on NPR.org:

This summer, it was announced that more that 4,000 prints and 20,000 negatives of Parks’ work will be moved to Purchase College/State University of New York to be preserved, cataloged and made available for public view and study. The groundbreaking photographer died in 2006, and the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation acquired his work the following year. The foundation will also be sending photos by Timothy O’Sullivan, Mathew Brady and Ed Clark along with Parks’ collection to be housed by Purchase.