Former professor donates for photojournalism center
Published Dec. 4, 2007
A new photojournalism center will house and preserve a growing number of photojournalism collections.
The center is funded through an endowment created with a donation from Angus and Betty McDougall. Angus McDougall was the chairman of the photojournalism sequence from 1972 to 1982, according to the journalism school's Web site.
"I approached David Rees, my successor in the photojournalism program, with the idea," Angus McDougall said. "He expanded it with the idea of making it into a center, and I agreed with that very much."
Rees, the current photojournalism chairman, said the center would allow the school to accept work from photojournalists and make it publicly available.
"We've had so many successful graduates and friends of the program, so we're really excited about the possibilities," Rees said.
The Angus and Betty McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies will maintain the online Missouri Photojournalism Archive. The archive will feature works from individual photographers, starting with Angus McDougall.
"I'm glad that my photographs both as a newspaper and magazine photographer will have a home," he said. "That's the problem with newspaper photography and magazine photography, is that it's very ephemeral."
The center will also make collections from Pictures of the Year International, College Photographer of the Year and the Missouri Photo Workshop available in the archive. Each of the contests was created at MU in the 1940s, according to the School of Journalism's Web site.
"Each has really helped establish a standard of excellence in photojournalism," Rees said.
POYi Director Rick Shaw said the new photojournalism center and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute have similar goals.
"We both have archive needs," he said. "The goal for POYi is to set up an archive that is completely accessible for education and research purposes."
He said the archive would help to preserve history.
"Any visual archive that goes back 65 years, whether the Missouri Photo Workshop or Pictures of the Year International, is certainly a window in history and a rich treasure," he said.
The school will house the new center in Lee Hills Hall, according to the news release. Angus McDougall, who is 91 years old, said he wouldn't be involved in the day-to-day workings of the center, but that he would certainly approach Rees with suggestions.
The new center will make those available as part of the archive.
The center will be dedicated during the school's centennial event, scheduled for Sept. 10-12, 2008.
The McDougalls' donations will count toward the School of Journalism's 100 by 100 campaign, which aims to increase the school's endowment fund to $100 million by the centennial celebration. According to the campaign's Web site, an endowment yields an average 5 percent payout each year. At that rate, a $100 million endowment would generate $5 million each year for the school.