Experience 161 Years of AP News Photos at R-N

(Newark, N.J., Oct. 31, 2007) -- Rutgers University in Newark will host a photographic exhibit that recounts the 161-year history of The Associated Press, the worlds largest news organization, and includes gripping Vietnam War images that earned Pulitzer Prizes for three of its photographers. The exhibit is on display Nov. 7 - Dec. 21 in the John Cotton Dana Library, 973/353-5222, 185 University Ave., Newark.

"This exhibit contains important material from the archives of the Associated Press, a major source of international news during the Vietnam War that today provides an even greater portion of American news organizations' coverage of the world, said Robert W. Snyder, associate professor, journalism and media studies, Rutgers-Newark. The pictures on display, which include compelling photographs from the Vietnam War, are a testimony to the importance of photojournalism that bears witness to the actions of our armed forces, according to Snyder, who noted, These photos also raise important questions about the role of the press in wartime in a democracy and the differences between coverage of the war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq today."

Richard Pyle -- AP staffer, author, reporter and bureau chief in Saigon during the war -- will participate in a public conversation, moderated by Snyder, on Monday,

Nov. 12, 11:30 am, in the Dana Room, on the fourth floor of the Dana Library.

The exhibit will be on view from Nov. 7 Nov. 19, during regular library hours: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to midnight; Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m.

In The News from Vietnam, display cases will feature the Vietnam War images of AP photographers Horst Faas, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1965; Eddie Adams, whose Pulitzer

was awarded in 1969, and Nick Ut, a 1973 honoree. Pencil-edited news copy filed by Faas during the war will also be also on view.

The APs story is told through text and images drawn from the agencys archives and its recently published history, Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else (Princeton Architectural Press). For example, a section on APs coverage of the civil rights movement shows Rosa Parks being fingerprinted in 1956 after she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala.; in another photo, taken seven years later, demonstrators in Birmingham, Ala., are being knocked over by the force of hoses aimed at them by city firefighters.

Other panels in the exhibit focus on APs intrepid foreign correspondents, memorable moments in sports and aviation, the White House beat and famous courtroom dramas, including the Leopold and Loeb murder case in 1924 and O.J. Simpsons not-guilty verdict in 1995.