 Dr. Stanley B. Burns, the Archive’s Founder, is a New York City ophthalmologist who acquired his first medical photograph in 1975 and established the Burns Archive in 1977.The Archive began receiving recognition in 1978, when a selection of its 19th and 20th century photographs were featured in the Time Life Encyclopedia of Collectibles entry on photographs.The Archive was called “one of the world’s most important repositories of early medical history” by "The New York Times", “the world’s greatest collection of early medical photography” by New York (magazine), “one of the six most important collections in the world” by Aperture (magazine), “one of America’s Top 100 Collectors” by Art and Antiques Magazine, and “the most important privately held photo archive in the world” by New York’s The Village Voice.