Women Making a Difference has been created in partnership with the Women's Fund of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County


©2006 The History Center in Tompkins County

Margaret Bourke-White was one of the preeminent American photographers of the 20th century. Born in the Bronx, Bourke-White came to Ithaca to finish her education at Cornell University. She became a protégé of Ithaca photographer Henry Head, and developed a portfolio of remarkable architectural photographs of the Cornell campus. She later worked for Henry Luce’s Time Magazine, and produced dramatic industrial photographs for his newly founded Fortune Magazine in the 1930s. Her long illustrious career with Life Magazine began in 1936, and in the following decades she brought American photojournalism to great heights.