Paul Vanderbilt (1905-1992) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1905. Both of his parents were teachers, and he was provided with an education that included Europe, public schools in Massachusetts, Amherst College, and Harvard University. In 1922 he studied at the Clarence White School of Photography. He graduated from Harvard in 1927 with a degree in art history. Vanderbilt continued his studies in Europe in 1928 and 1929. During this time he also selected books for the Philadelphia Museum of Art while attending classes at London, Paris, and Lausanne. After his return to the United States, Vanderbilt was librarian, editor of publications, and research assistant to the director at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
From 1941 to 1945 Vanderbilt was involved with two government projects. He served as a consultant for the U.S. Navy for the planning of the Navy Photographic Center from 1941 to 1942. In this position, he helped create controls for incoming still and motion picture photographs. From 1942 to 1944 he was a visual information specialist with the Office of War Information. During these years he helped plan the National Film Library for the Library of Congress. In 1944 Vanderbilt was named chief of the Photographic Section of the Library of Congress. In this position, Vanderbilt was involved in the reorganization of Roy Stryker's Farm Security Administration photo documentation project. Other titles Vanderbilt held at LC included chief and chair of the Fine Arts, Prints, and Photographs Divisions. During this period in his career he wrote Guide to the Special Collection of Prints and Photographs in the Library of Congress (1955).
Vanderbilt came to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in 1953 as the curator of the Iconographic Collection, a position that was created for him by Director Clifford Lord in order to consolidate administrative responsibility for the Society's photographs then housed in the Library, Archives, and Museum. Under Vanderbilt's guidance, this collection evolved into one of the major resources for historic photographs in North America, transforming the way in which historical photographs were accessed and used. His work for the Historical Society involved developing policies, cataloging, reference, and preservation. In 1960 Vanderbilt began a project of landscape photography for the Society, eventually creating more than 6000 negatives.
Vanderbilt retired from the Historical Society in 1972. After this he devoted himself to the creation of thematic panels which juxtaposed historic images with some of his landscape work. These panels ultimately became the basis for his posthumous book, Between the Landscape and Its Other (1993). Vanderbilt was 87 years old and in the final stages of terminal cancer when he took his own life in 1992. Vanderbilt is viewed as a pioneer in the development of visual imagery as a cultural and historical resource. His own photographs were selected for inclusion in The Photographer and the American Landscape, published by the Museum of Modern Art in 1963.
