News and Progress

Donation preserves legacy of photojournalism

Jan. 16, 2008

COLUMBIA, Mo. –The home of the first journalism school in the world will have a new addition debuting this fall. Angus and Betty McDougall have made a donation that will create the McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. The Center will preserve and make available collections of photographs by newspaper, magazine and documentary photographers.

“Art photography has received recognition for a long time, but journalistic photography often has a short life. It is in the papers and magazines, and then it’s gone,” Angus McDougall said. “Photojournalism should receive the same recognition as art photography has in the past, and should be just as accessible.”

McDougall, a former photojournalism educator and director at MU, was known for his commitment to helping students excel. He hopes that the Center will be a resource to educate students for years to come. The dedication of the Center will take place in September, during the centennial of the School of Journalism and the dedication of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.

“The Center is an unparalleled documentary photojournalism resource,” said David Rees, MU photojournalism chair. “Since its founding, the J-school has studied, recognized and celebrated the work of the world’s pre-eminent photographers. The McDougalls’ generosity and vision will allow us to collect, organize and make searchable thousands of important images for study by photographers, researchers and our faculty and students.”

In establishing the McDougall Center, the Missouri Photojournalism Archive also will be created. The Archive will contain collections of photographs, oral histories, writings and other materials from individual photographers. The work of Angus McDougall will be the first to be catalogued and made available. Invitations will be given to selected Missouri photojournalism alumni and other friends of the program, to add their work to the archive.The Center also will make the following photography collections - currently managed by the journalism school- available electronically:

The Pictures of the Year International (POYi), which has 40,000 images of the best newspaper and magazine work from the world’s oldest photojournalism competition, founded in 1944.
The College Photographer of the Year (CPOY), established in 1945.
The Missouri Photo Workshop, a collection of more than 10,000 images chronicling life in small Missouri towns, established in 1949.

The Center will be located in the space to be renovated in Lee Hills Hall. The McDougalls' gift supports the For All We Call Mizzou campaign, which will celebrate raising $1 billion in the spring of 2009. Reaching this goal will enhance MU’s ability to compete nationally and internationally for the best students and faculty and will provide broad access for students of all economic backgrounds to Missouri’s flagship University.

Angus McDougall is a renowned photography innovator in the use of high-speed strobe technology and in using multiple pictures to tell stories. McDougall tested his theories of visual communication and formed many of his principles of picture editing as associate editor of International Harvester World, a Chicago-based corporate magazine. McDougall taught hundreds of students during his 10 years as head of the Missouri School of Journalism photojournalism sequence and director of the Pictures of the Year competition. He pressed his photo students to become adept in all aspects of journalism (especially visual reporting, writing, design and management) so that they would have the credibility to cause change in newsroom thinking. The McDougalls live in Columbia, Mo.