James Van Der Zee. Tap Dance Dress Rehearsal (1928), vintage gelatin silver print The Tsiaras Family Photography Collection
William Tsiaras has a good eye a trait that serves him well as both an ophthalmologist and an influential photography collector, who has quietly donated hundreds of works to museums over the years. His latest gift is to his undergraduate alma mater’s Colby College Museum of Art in Maine of more than 500 photographs from his personal collection, built over the past 25 years alongside the works he would acquire for institutions. As a board member and former chair, “he really put the idea on the table that the museum needed to have a collection of photography,” says the Colby Museum’s director Jacqueline Terrassa, adding that Tsiaras’s involvement with funding for purchases and matching gifts, starting in the early 2000s under former director Sharon Corwin, “transformed the whole collection”.
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Dorothea Lange (American, 1895–1965), “Squatters’ camp on highway. Characters in scene from Resettlement film. Near Bakersfield, Calif.” 1935 Vintage gelatin silver print, 7⅜ × 9⅝ inches
Image courtesy of Colby College
The Colby College Museum of Art has received a gift of more than 500 photographs from the collection of alumni Dr. William Tsiaras and Nancy Meyer Tsiaras, expanding the museum’s photography holdings.
The collection features prints by Berenice Abbott, Edward Steichen and Dorothea Lange, as well as works by Cuban photographers Pedro Abascal, Arien Chang, Alejandro González and Lissette Solórzano. The collection also includes works by Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, artists who were both patients of Bill Tsiaras, a Providence-based ophthalmologist and medical professor. David Vestal, Joe Deal and Lucas Samaras, as well as Tsiaras’ brothers, the artists Philip and Alexander, are represented in the collection.
Colby museum receives 500 photos, including works of Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange
Alumni Bill and Nancy Tsiaras give a gift from their extraordinary photography collection.
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Dorothea Lange (American, 1895–1965), “Squatters’ camp on highway. Characters in scene from Resettlement film. Near Bakersfield, Calif.” 1935 Vintage gelatin silver print, 7⅜ × 9⅝ inches
Image courtesy of Colby College
The Colby College Museum of Art has received a gift of more than 500 photographs from the collection of alumni Dr. William Tsiaras and Nancy Meyer Tsiaras, expanding the museum’s photography holdings.
The collection features prints by Berenice Abbott, Edward Steichen and Dorothea Lange, as well as works by Cuban photographers Pedro Abascal, Arien Chang, Alejandro González and Lissette Solórzano. The collection also includes works by Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, artists who were both patients of Bill Tsiaras, a Providence-based ophthalmologist and medical professor
Colby College Museum of Art Receives Collection of More Than 500 Photographs
January 12, 2021
207-577-2600
Colby College Museum of Art receives collection of more than 500 photographs, including works by Ansel Adams, James Van Der Zee, Dorothea Lange, Edward Steichen, and Lissette Solórzano
The Tsiaras Family Photography Collection, gift of Colby alumni Dr. William Tsiaras and Nancy Meyer Tsiaras, further solidifies Colby’s Museum as a leading destination for American art
A transformative gift to the Colby College Museum of Art of more than 500 photographs from the private collection of Dr. William Tsiaras ’68, P’03 and Nancy Meyer Tsiaras ’68, P’03 will significantly expand and deepen the Museum’s photography holdings. This collection, inspired by the gift of a camera to William (“Bill”) as a young émigré and shaped by his photographer patients, expands the Museum’s holdings in ways that advance its ability to tell alternate narratives of A