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Cicely Tyson’s Oscar Gown Enters the Academy Vault as Hollywood Reorganizes Its Memory
The couture gown worn by the late Cicely Tyson to the 91st Academy Awards has been formally inducted into the Academy Collection, joining one of the most expansive cultural archives in the world—an institution now reckoning not only with what it preserves, but how it tells its own story.
Designed by celebrated African American fashion designer B Michael and preserved alongside the original fashion illustration, the gown stands as both artifact and statement: a record of Tyson’s final Oscar appearance and a symbol of her singular place in American cinema. Its inclusion was announced as part of a sweeping expansion by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose holdings now exceed 52 million film-related objects.
The announcement also marked a structural shift inside the Academy. For the first time, its museum, archive, library, conservation, preservation, exhibition, and screening efforts will operate under a unified leadership vision following the elevation of Amy Homma to Director and President of both the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the Academy Collection. Homma will oversee what is widely regarded as the world’s largest film archive, working alongside Matt Severson and the teams at the Academy Film Archive and the Margaret Herrick Library.
A Broader Record of How Films—and Power—Are Made
Long a repository of Hollywood’s most iconic objects, the Academy Collection’s newest acquisitions underscore a broader ambition: to preserve not just finished films, but the cultural, political, and industrial forces that shaped them.
Among the additions is the screen-used hero bicycle from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), donated by Paul Reubens—a piece of pop surrealism now preserved as canonical film history. At the other end of the spectrum are rare scripts and correspondence belonging to Orson Welles, donated by collector James Pepper, including materials from Citizen Kane and annotated drafts of Touch of Evil.
The visual record of filmmaking also deepens with more than 70 previously unseen Kodachrome slides taken during the production of Jaws, photographed by sound boom operator Frank Meadows—images that capture the daily texture of a production that would redefine the modern blockbuster.
Preserving Underrepresented Voices—and the Labor Behind the Lens
Several acquisitions deepen the Academy’s documentation of voices and labor long overlooked. The personal archive of filmmaker Arthur Dong—more than 1,500 items—offers a comprehensive examination of Chinese representation in Hollywood while documenting the creative contributions of Chinese American filmmakers across decades.
Additional collections from Allison Anders, Freida Lee Mock, Sherry Lansing, Walter Mirisch, Marcia Ross, Elizabeth Ziegler, and Marvin March further expand the record of how films are cast, financed, designed, and shaped behind the scenes.
The Academy has also acquired the Kobal Foundation Collection of Photograph Negatives—approximately 20,000 originals by photographers including George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, and Ruth Harriet Louise—preserving Hollywood portraiture featuring stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Taylor.
Fashion, Technology, and the Physical Body of Cinema
Costume and production design remain central to the collection’s growth. New additions include a Charles Lemaire costume worn by Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set, a Mark Bridges costume worn by Heather Graham in Boogie Nights, and tap shoes worn by James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy.
The Academy has also preserved life casts of performers, including Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Jane Alexander, Carl Weathers, Danny DeVito, Steve Martin, Brooke Shields, and Sylvester Stallone—objects that speak to performance, transformation, and the evolution of screen illusion.
Technological acquisitions range from an ARRI camera used by documentary pioneer Robert J. Flaherty to a registration mask used for motion capture in The Polar Express, and a late–19th-century Lumière Model A film projector.
Restoration, Circulation, and Public Memory
Over the past year, the Academy Film Archive added more than 1,000 audio and visual elements, completed more than 30 new film prints and 4K restorations, and premiered restored works, including Mysterious Skin, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Saint Joan at the Academy Museum.
Founded in 1927, the Academy has spent nearly a century collecting costumes, scripts, photographs, cameras, props, sound recordings, makeup tools, visual-effects technologies, and digital assets—materials that now circulate globally through exhibitions, screenings, research appointments, and international loans. Components of the collection are accessible through the Academy Museum, the Margaret Herrick Library, the Academy Film Archive, and online at academycollection.org.
With Cicely Tyson’s Oscar gown now formally preserved alongside Hollywood’s most iconic artifacts, the Academy’s expanding archive reflects an institution increasingly conscious of how history is framed—and whose legacy is placed at its center.
Search Tags: Cicely Tyson; Academy Collection; Academy Museum of Motion Pictures; B Michael; Oscar gown; film archives; Hollywood history; Margaret Herrick Library; Amy Homma; Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; African American cinema; Magrira Sandoval
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