Mary Panzer is a historian of photography and American culture, curator and writer. She is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Archives Program in the History Department at NYU.  Ms. Panzer is the biographer of Mathew Brady (1926-1896), Philippe Halsman (1905-1978), Lewis Hine (1874-1940), and William H. Rau (1855-1920).  She is a specialist in the history of portraiture and commercial photography (1839 to the present) and former Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution (1992-2000). She is the author and curator of Philadelphia Naturalistic Photography, 1865-1906 (1982), on the history of amateur photography in America 1850-1910, with emphasis on the photographic community in and around Philadelphia. She is a frequent contributor to the Chicago Tribune and AmericanPhoto and her most recent publications include “Stanley Kubrick, Photojournalist at LOOK,” Vanity Fair (March 2005) and her forthcoming book “Things As They Are: Photojournalism Since 1955” (2006).  Ms. Panzer is a member of Oracle, American Studies Association and College Art Association.