The Dayton Art Institute is one of the pioneers among art museums in the collecting of photography. Beginning under the leadership of director Siegfried Weng in the early 1930s the museum has amassed more than 5,000 photographs that span the history of photography from the 19th century to the present. Ranging from stellar collections of 20th century modernists including Edward Weston and Paul Strand to the contemporary works of Robert Mapplethorpe and Sandy Skoglund, the museum’s collections represent the broad and wonderful diversity of this rich and popular art form. The Art Institute is also the home to the collections of Dayton’s own Jane Reece, whose more than 500 prints and 8,000 negatives represent an important chapter in the history of Pictorial photography in America.