A small New York college has been given a rare collection of 75 signed Ansel Adams photographs, selected as a set by the artist himself, the college announced Tuesday.
Among the images is the famous Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico as well as several well-known scenes of Yosemite National Park and photographs of artist Georgia O'Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
The College of New Rochelle said that the gift, worth $2.5 million, is from Caryl Horwitz, former director of its graduate art department. Her late husband acquired the collection in the 1980s.
The 75 photographs make up what is known as Adams' Museum Set Edition of Fine Prints, a selection he made beginning in the late 1970s. He created several museum sets before his death in 1984.
In March, when the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles acquired 25 of the 75 prints, senior curator Judith Keller said, "The Museum Set is significant in several ways, the first being that it helps us understand how Adams evaluated his work, and how he wanted future generations to view it."
The gift was made to honour former Sister Dorothy Ann Kelly, who was president of the college while Horwitz was there.
The college said that when Horwitz's husband, Martin Hor-witz, a business executive and art collector, bought the photographs, he agreed the collection would one day be donated to a museum or school.
