From an article by Billy Kobin published in the Louisville Courier Journal
To ensure future generations can look back on defining moments in Louisville’s history, The Courier Journal is donating its library of an estimated 3 million photographs and negatives to the University of Louisville Archives and Special Collections.
University of Louisville basketball team members and others on firetruck at airport, Louisville, Kentucky, 1956.
The Courier Journal, winner of 11 Pulitzer Prizes throughout its 154-year history, was joined by its parent company, Gannett, in donating the collection, which is being appraised and is expected to be worth tens of millions of dollars. This move will allow the public access to the collection, which chronicles history in Louisville as well as Kentucky and the nation.
The collection includes images from daily happenings and major events from approximately the mid-1930s to the early 2000s when digital photography began to replace the use of film to capture images. The collection might have dated back further, but Louisville’s Great Flood of 1937 destroyed much of The Courier Journal’s photo and negative library.