About

STANLEY B. BURNS, MD, FACS is an ophthalmologist and Research Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, and Professor of Medical Humanities at New York University: Langone Medical Center. He is an internationally distinguished author, curator, historian, collector, and archivist. In 1975, he began collecting historic photography with an emphasis on unique photographs not available anywhere else. Dr. Burns’s collection of over one million vintage photographs (1840-1950) has been generally recognized as the most important private comprehensive collection of early photography. In 1977, he founded The Burns Archive to share his discoveries, and he began his writing career. Dr. Burns has written 50 photo-historical texts and more than one thousand journal articles, and has curated more than one hundred exhibitions. He consults on feature films, documentaries, and television series. He was the Medical, Historical and Technical Advisor to the HBO/Cinemax series THE KNICK about a New York City hospital in the year 1900, as well as the PBS Civil War series MERCY STREET. When not collecting, Dr. Burns spends his time consulting, lecturing, creating exhibits, and writing books on under-appreciated areas of history and photography.

Other Works

  • Setting Sun: Painted Photographs of Meiji Japan

    2017
  • Mensur & Schmiss: German Dueling Societies

    2017
  • Stiffs, Skulls & Skeletons: Medical Photography and Symbolism

    2015
  • Mirror, Mirror: The Burns Collection of Daguerreotypes

    2012
  • Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography by R.B. Bontecou

    2011
  • Sleeping Beauty III: Memorial Photography, The Children

    2011
  • News Art: Manipulated Photographs From the Burns Archive

    2008
  • Deadly Intent: Crime and Punishment

    2008
  • Seeing Insanity

    2007
  • Geisha: A Photographic History 1872-1912

    2006
  • Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement and the Family in Memorial Photography, American & European Traditions

    2002
  • A Morning's Work: Medical Photographs from the Burns Archive & Collection 1843-1939

    1998
  • Forgotten Marriage: The Painted Tintype & The Decorative Frame, 1860-1910, A Lost Chapter in American Portraiture

    1995
  • The Face of Mercy: A Photographic History of Medicine at War

    1993
  • Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America

    1990
  • Masterpieces of Medical Photography: Selections from The Burns Archive

    1987
  • Early Medical Photography in America 1839-1883

    1983