Born on October 15, 1903 in Leipzig, Germany, Dr. Otto Bettmann began his professional career at the Prussian State Art Library in Berlin as a curator of rare books.

When his career path was foreshortened by the rise of Nazism, Dr. Bettmann packed his belongings, including two steamer trunks full of pictures, books, and films and moved to New York City in 1935.

His arrival in New York coincided with the dawning popularity of photojournalism. Movie newsreels and pictorial magazines had sparked what he called "the beginning of the visual age." Speaking of his good fortune, Dr. Bettmann said, "Everybody wanted pictures, and I had two trunks full."

Dr. Bettmann soon created an industry for himself, collecting and classifying images for publication. His first clients included Look Magazine , LIFE , and the Book-of-the-Month Club. And public demand for images grew, fueled first by World War II, then by television. But it wasn't just serendipity that marked his success. Dr. Bettmann selected his pictures with an amazing eye for historical relevance, artistic composition, drama, and humor.

By 1938, the Archive comprised 15,000 pictures, and today it contains more than 11 million, many of which are more than 100 years old.

His life's work secured, Dr. Bettmann lived his remaining years in Florida, USA, enjoying his family and writing books. He wrote nine in total, including The Good Old Days, They Were Terrible , and Our Literary History . He passed away in 1998 at the age of 94, having witnessed many of this century's most dramatic events and assured that generations to come would be able to do the same.