Images Matter.
In many cases, the availability of images determines the stories that are told. When a community’s visual history is hidden or lost, that community can literally become invisible to both contemporary audiences and the historical record. As a social enterprise, Gado Images’ mission is to digitize, capture and share the world’s visual history. Since our launch in 2010, we’ve worked to ensure that the visual history of all communities is preserved and shared, and that no one’s story is hidden or lost.
Advancing Diversity
Gado Images originally launched out of an effort to preserve and share the remarkable photographic archive of the Afro American Newspapers. Over the last 10+ years, we’ve worked to safeguard, steward and advance minority history, as well as the visual histories of historically underrepresented groups. The Afro Newspapers’ collection now contains more than 11,000 photos documenting Black history since the 1890s, many of which were never seen before. Our partner the Florey collection includes extensive imagery of the struggle for women’s rights and suffrage. Our materials from several of the world’s leading research universities document the histories of a diverse range of ethnic, religious, and cultural groups. Our diverse images are shared in publications worldwide, reaching audiences in the millions. Today, we remain committed to preserving and sharing diverse histories, to ensure that every community’s story can be told.
Saving (and Sharing) History
Every year, millions of historically valuable photographs are thrown away or otherwise lost. People or organizations may lack the knowledge to digitize and share challenging materials like Kodachrome slides or glass plate negatives, or they may lack the resources needed to preserve and share these materials. Gado Images works to find, restore, digitize and house these threatened historical artifacts, ensuring that they can be used and enjoyed today, and are preserved for the future. We also work to expand the reach of important collections that are inaccessible or unavailable for today’s image users. In some cases, we literally acquire materials from the garbage heap, preserving them in our own internal archive and making them available for publications, textbook publishers, documentarians and other users worldwide. Through our partnership with the Internet Archive, we’ve also made over 1,000 of these images freely available for creators to use, remix, and share.
Supporting Cultural Heritage Organizations
Through our partnerships, we provide tens of thousands of dollars in revenue to cultural heritage organizations every year to support their important work. Our team also volunteers our time, expertise, and resources to help organizations preserve their historical materials—including small archives, and even individual collectors. Sometimes the most historically important, at-risk materials are held by the smallest institutions, and we love to work with these organizations to ensure their history is preserved and protected. We also love to partner with artists and other cultural creators—from musicians to playwrights—to interpret and share the remarkable materials our cultural heritage partners hold. The Wall Street Journal said that Gado Images “rescues Black history”, and Co-Founder Thomas Smith was the 2021 recipient of the prestigious Volunteer of the Year Award from the Digital Media Licensing Association, recognizing his service to the visual media community.
See how our team digitized and restored a shattered glass plate negative to preserve and share an important part of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) history.
Work With Us
Contact us today to learn more about how Gado Images can help your organization preserve and share its history.