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Nicolette Bromberg Photographs, approximately 1974-2020

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Nicolette Bromberg
Title
Nicolette Bromberg Photographs
Dates
approximately 1974-2020 (inclusive)
Quantity
2.04 cubic feet (6 boxes containing approximately 160 prints and 140 slides)
Collection Number
6581 (Accession No. 6581-001)
Summary
Art photographs taken by a photographer and curator of Visual Materials in the University of Washington Libraries' Special Collections
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

No restrictions on access.

Request at UW

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Nicolette Bromberg (1950-2023), born in Olympia, Washington, January 10, 1950, was a photo curator, archivist and educator, who worked with photo collections for over 50 years. She was also a photographer in her own right. The daughter of two librarians, her career started in 1972 as a student at the University of Oregon, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts (1974) and a Masters of Fine Arts in Photography (1976). In 1996, she earned a Masters of Architecture from the University of Kansas. Between 1978 to 2000, her career took her to Lower Columbia College in Washington state, the University of Kansas, and the Wisconsin Historical Society. In 2000, she became Visual Materials Curator at the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, retiring in 2022. While at the University of Washington, Nicolette expanded the visual materials program to include moving images and increased access to architectural drawings. She was creative and relentless at finding grant money, conducting surveys of community organizations to search for hidden film and photography collections, and promoting digitization efforts. She taught courses on the management of photograph collections, including "Understanding Photographs as Historic Documents," an expression of her philosophical view of photographs. In 2016, Bromberg was a founding member and first director of the Pacific Northwest Photographers Archive (PNPA), a non-profit organization preserving the region's rich history in photographic art. Throughout her career, Bromberg authored numerous books and articles. (See Bibliography below.)

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Content Description

Art photographs created by Nicolette Bromberg. The collection contains black and white photographic prints, contact prints, mounted exhibition prints and 35 mm slides, taken between 1974 to 1999. Bromberg specialized in creating platinum/palladium prints.

The collection is arranged in several series. These include identified locations in the United States, Canada and Europe, many emphasizing her love of urban and rural landscapes. Additional categories include Unidentified landscapes and Nature studies, Buildings, Architectural details, People, Dogs, Abstracts, and Experimental and Photographic Technique. Her subject matter within these categories range from her experimental student work to documenting religious edifices in Europe. She was attracted to unusual landscapes and eclectic subject matter. In addition, many of her photographic works have fanciful titles such as “Bride threatened by camera,” “Emergence of the Rock People,” “Dancing stones of Topeka,” and “Modern American petroglyphs.”

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Creator's copyrights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in 10 series.

  • Series 1, Identified Locations
    • Subseries A: United States and Canada
    • Subseries B: Europe
  • Series 2, Unidentified landscapes and nature studies
  • Series 3, Architectural features
  • Series 4, Buildings
  • Series 5, People
  • Series 6, Dogs
  • Series 7, Abstract
  • Series 8, Experimental
  • Series 9, Photographic technique
  • Series 10, Contact sheets

Acquisition Information

Donated by Nicolette Bromberg, 2022

Processing Note

Processed by Arlene Cohen and Kristin Kinsey, 2025.

Bibliography

  • Bromberg, Nicolette. “Loss of Vision: How Early 20th century Photography Was Misjudged by Critics and How Archives Obscure the Image.” Exposure Magazine, June, 2018. Cleveland, Ohio: Society for Photographic Education https://medium.com/exposure-magazine/loss-of-vision-ebf2339713c2
  • McCue, Francis; Randlett, Mary and Bromberg, Nicolette. Mary Randlett portraits. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014.
  • Bromberg, Nicolette and Palin, Hannah. “Starting from Nothing: The Art of Creating a Film Archive.” Moving Image: the journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, 2013-03, vol. 13, no. 1: 217-225. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota
  • Martin, David F. and Bromberg, Nicolette. Shadows of a Fleeting World: Pictorial Photography and the Seattle Camera Club. (Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies, January 18, 2011). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2011
  • Bromberg, Nicolette; Nowell, Frank H. and Stamets, John. Picturing the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: the Photographs of Frank H. Nowell. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2009.
  • Bromberg, Nicolette and Swain, Amanda. The Baltic community in King County: an exhibit featuring members of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian communities, photography by Mary Randlett. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, 2008.
  • Bromberg, Nicolette and Palin, Hannah with Burke, Libby. Washington State film preservation manual; low-cost & no-cost suggestions to care for your film. Prepared for Washington State libraries, museums, historical societies, and other institutions with film in their collections. Olympia, WA: Washington State Secretary of State, 2004
  • Bromberg, Nicolette, Hoelscher, Steven D. and Vale, Thomas R. Wisconsin then and now: the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Rephotography Project. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
  • Bromberg, Nicolette. Wisconsin revisited: a rephotographic essay. Madison, WI: State Historical Society of Wisconsin,1998. The material in this book originally appeared in the Wisconsin magazine of history, Spring 1998, v. 81, no. 3: 162-237
  • Bromberg, Nicolette. “The best and fastest route to Denver: The development and promotion of the east-west route across Kansas.” Ephemera Journal, January 1, 1994, vol. 7: 59-73. Cazenovia, NY: The Ephemera Society of America.
  • Bromberg, Nicolette. “Photography and the automobile.” Journal of the West, April, 1994, vol.33, no. 2; 20-27.; Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University, Dept. of History
  • Bromberg, Nicolette. “Kansas women in the workplace.” Journal of the West, January, 1989, vol. 28, no. 1: 51-58. Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University, Dept. of History.
  • Bromberg, Nicolette, “Clarence LeRoy Andrews and Alaska.” Alaska Journal, Spring, 1976, vol. 6, no. 2:66-77. Juneau, AK: Alaska Northwest Publishing Co.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 


2025 (Last modified: 6/26/2025)

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