Harry Ransom Center to house Magnum Photo Archive

Magnum Photos, the photographic cooperative whose members snapped some of the most iconic images of the last half of the 20th century, has sold its archives of almost 200,000 original press prints to an investment firm that has partnered with the University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center to preserve, catalog, and make accessible the photos. The collection covers major events, celebrities, world leaders, social affairs, and enduring images such as the green-eyed "Afghan Girl" who graced the cover of National Geographic in 1985. Its new owner is an affiliate of MSD Capital, the private investment firm of computer mogul and Austin resident Michael Dell. "Housing the collection at the Ransom Center not only allows this archive to be studied by photographers but also helps satisfy the huge interest in it among historians, anthropologists, curators, journalists, and the public at large," said Mark Lubell, managing director of Magnum Photos