Herb Ferguson Photographs
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Select photos from the collection have been scanned and are online.
What's in the entire collection?
The Herb Ferguson Photograph Collection documents the entire run of the newspaper Oakland produced by the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation (OPDC) and represents Ferguson's wider body of work as a photographer and filmmaker, including his official work for the University of Pittsburgh, various clients as a freelancer, and personal photographs and films. Items include 2x2 and 4x3 slides, finished photographs and prints, 35mm black and white negatives, transparencies, contact sheets, gelatin silver prints, copies of each issue of the Pittsburgh Pleasures calendar and the newspaper Oakland, film reels, VHS tapes, audiocassette tapes, posters, vinyl albums, film equipment, and notes, receipts, inventories, research materials, correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, and published materials (i.e., newspapers, magazines, booklets). Items date from approximately 1950 through 2010. Many slides, prints, and film reels are not labelled and are undated. Materials in the collection are generally organized by subject and by location, with some photographs organized by year or decade.
About Herb Ferguson
Herbert “Herb” Davis Ferguson (August 24, 1931-January 26, 2021) was an American photographer especially known for his work in Pittsburgh, Western Pennsylvania and University of Pittsburgh communities. Ferguson worked as a photographer for Alcoa (1959-1962) and as director of medical media for the University of Pittsburgh (1963-1979). He also served as the principal photographer for the newspaper. Though retiring in 1996, although he continued on as a freelance photographer. Collection highlights include Ferguson's involvement in documenting the university-sponsored childhood immunization campaign in Central America in 1967; the grant funded project,The Polish Phoenix, a multi-screen slide show with Pitt’s Eastern European Studies program and which was shown around the United States; and developing the photography book, Pittsburgh: Fulfilling Its Destiny, and several editions of the Pittsburgh Pleasures events calendar.
He operated his own studio, FPEPhotography covering both commercial, industrial, natural, and medical subjects, while also producing over 150 films.
Ferguson received a BS in Photographic Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology, a Masters in Educational Communications from the University of Pittsburgh, and a BS in Zoology and Entomology from Penn State University.
