In 2007, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts donated more than 28,500 photographs from its collection to 180 college and university museums, galleries, and collections around the country through the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Project. The ambitious philanthropic and curatorial feat was conceived to provide access to this lesser-known body of work, and to foster understanding of the incredibly vital role that photography played throughout Warhol’s art and life.

Recognizing the immense educative and cultural value of such a collection, the Foundation identified teaching institutions that did not necessarily have the means to acquire Warhol’s work, but did have the aspiration and capability to exhibit and care for it. In the hands of these institutions, the photographs have since been the subject of dozens of exhibitions and essays, and inspired new perspectives on Warhol’s relationship with the medium.

Andy Warhol, Marianne Faithfull, 1982. Black and white print, 10 x 8 inches. Collection of Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College.

Andy Warhol, Bob Colacello, 1974. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of University College Arts Program, University of Maryland.

Andy Warhol, Perfume Bottles, 1979. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 38 inches. Collection of Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Andy Warhol, Jed Johnson and Archie, 1973. Polaroid Type SX 70, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.

Andy Warhol, Christopher Makos, Not dated. Black and white print, 8 x 10 inches. Collection of Plattsburgh State Art Museum, State University of New York, Plattsburgh.

Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, 1980. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, St. Bonaventure University.

Andy Warhol, Linda Cossey's Camera, 1980. Polacolor 2, 4 1/4 inches x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College.

Andy Warhol, Levis, 1980s. Polacolor ER, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Andy Warhol, Mother Goose, 1981. Polacolor 2, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Augustana College Art Museum, Augustana College.

Andy Warhol, Campbell's Wonton Soup, 1981. Polacolor 2, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University.

A passionate observer and recorder of the culture around him, Warhol had a camera in his possession nearly everywhere he went, from 1958 until his death in 1987. He took hundreds of thousands of photographs, mediating his surroundings through the lens of different Polaroid and 35mm cameras. These images offer a window onto the way his mind worked, revealing the people, scenes, situations, objects, interiors, and landscapes that caught his insatiable eye, while also documenting the look and feel of the intimate world he inhabited. Photography was more than a diaristic endeavor for Warhol; it was the source of nearly every series he made, transformed into a silk-screen to print atop a painted surface. The selections gifted through the Legacy Project include seemingly countless Polaroids of famous (and not so famous) sitters that functioned as preparatory sketches for his society portrait commissions, as well as still lifes similarly used to create his Skulls, Knives, and Shadows, among other series.

Andy Warhol, Easter Eggs, 1982. Polacolor 2, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of School of Art Galleries, Kent State University.

Andy Warhol Georgia O'Keefe and Juan Hamilton, 1980. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of University of New Mexico Art Museum, University of New Mexico.

Andy Warhol, Flowers, 1980. Polacolor Type 108, 3 3/8 x 4 1/4 inches. Collection of University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Andy Warhol, Halston, Not dated. Black and white print, 8 x 10 inches. Collection of Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont.

Andy Warhol, Jed Johnson, 1972. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Andy Warhol, Jackie Curtis, 1974. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Andy Warhol, Catherine Guinness, 1980s. Black and white print, 8 x 10 inches. Collection of Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College.

Andy Warhol, Ladies and Gentlemen (Wilhelmina Ross), 1974. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Bannister Gallery, Rhode Island College.

Andy Warhol, James Curley, 1981. Black and white print, 8 x 10 inches. Collection of Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian State University.

Andy Warhol, Dracula, 1981. Polacolor 2, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College.

In 1977, Warhol received a 35mm Minox camera and it is estimated that he shot at least a roll a day with it over the next ten years. Some of the tens of thousands of silver gelatin prints resulted in published books, but until the Photographic Legacy Project brought them out into the open, there were few, if any, straightforward opportunities to witness Warhol’s devotion to the medium firsthand. In order to further encourage scholarship and education, the foundation contributed high resolution files representing the entirety of the Photographic Legacy Project to Artstor, the leading digital library and online resource for colleges and universities, museums, libraries, primary and secondary schools, and other non-profit organizations. Through Artstor, this extensive body of work is available to institutional subscribers for research and teaching purposes in over 45 countries.

See a full list of recipients here.

Andy Warhol, Hammer and Sickle, mid 1970's. Black and white print, 4 x 8 inches. Collection of The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Skidmore College.

Andy Warhol, Howdy Doody, 1980. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Andy Warhol, Christmas Poinsettias, 1982. Polacolor ER, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of MIT List Visual Arts Center, MIT.

Andy Warhol, Self-portrait, 1980. Black and white print, 8 x 10 inches. Collection of MIT List Visual Arts Center, MIT.

Andy Warhol, Potassa de Lafayette, 1977. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University.

Andy Warhol, Rocks, 1982. Silver gelatin print, 8 x 10 inches. Collection of Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University.

Andy Warhol, Thomas Ammann, 1977. Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University.

Andy Warhol, Lars and Laila Crammer, 1981. Polacolor ER, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University.

Andy Warhol, Untitled, 1984. Black and white print, 8 x 10 inches. Collection of The George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College.

Andy Warhol, Carol Soffer, 1980. Polacolor 2, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection of Belk Visual Arts Center, Davidson College.