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Photo Collector and Historian Jack Wilgus Passes away after a Fall
Jack Wilgus at home with part of his collection of Photographica. (Photo courtesy of Carlos Vertanessian)
Long-time photography collector and photo historian Jack Wilgus passed away on June 12th after a fall at home and being admitted to the hospital in Dallas. He and his wife Beverly were active members of the Daguerreian Society and one of the most beloved couples in the Society.
Jack was born in Chicago, IL on November 12, 1943. He went to Luther North High School, class of 1961. After high school, he studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (class of 1965), and then later studied at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (class of 1967).
Wilgus married his college sweetheart Beverly on June 17, 1967 after graduation. Jack and Beverly then moved to Maryland in September 1968, where Jack went to work as a teacher at the Maryland Institute College of Art and later became Department Chair and Professor Emeritus. He retired in August 2010.
Jack and Beverly Wilgus photographed together and collected photography for more than 50 years, after making their first photo purchase in 1968. Their resulting collection comprised some 30,000 photographs, representing a wide range of processes and equipment, and objects dating from pre-photography to the end of the 20th century. The collection is a celebration of the depth, breadth and quality of the medium.
A major exhibit of their collection was shown in the exhibition, “Defined By Light: Photography’s First 75 Years—Images and Objects from the Collection of Jack and Beverly Wilgus,” held in 2014 to mark the 175th anniversary of the announcement of photography. The next year they formally promised the donation of the Jack and Beverly Wilgus History of Photography Collection to SMU. Their vast collection of Photographs and Photographica is now a part of Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) DeGolyer Library.
That same year as the initial promise of their serial donation, Jack and Beverly used the collection as a basis for a presentation at the Daguerreian Society’s Conference in Pasadena.
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