$ cat ./records/gatess-corbis-moves-the-bettmann-photo-archive-into-a-sub-zero-un-2001.txt
Gates's Corbis Moves the Bettmann Photo Archive Into a Sub-Zero Underground Vault
[RECORD.TXT] · cat --full
Through Corbis, the digital-image company he founded in 1989, Bill Gates owned one of the world's great photographic collections — including the storied Bettmann Archive of some 11 million historic photos. To halt the images' decay, Corbis moved the archive in 2001 into a sub-zero, high-security vault built 220 feet underground in a former Pennsylvania limestone mine. The deep-freeze preservation is expected to extend the negatives' life by centuries, though some critics lamented that placing the originals literally underground put iconic images further out of public reach.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/iconic-photos-tucked-away-in-mountain-mine/
Free forever · No ads · Solo developer
If this was worth a read, help make the next entry possible.
Every entry in this archive was researched, verified, and written by one person — for free. No corporate funding. No ad revenue. Just a developer who believes verified history should be accessible to everyone. Your donation directly funds new entries.
Crypto accepted · No subscription required
← Previous
Bill and Melinda Gates Among the Inaugural Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy Honorees
Next →
Gates and His Father Campaign to Preserve the Estate Tax, Bucking Fellow Billionaires
[CROSS_REFERENCES] · grep --category='Business'
Related Accomplishments
2026
Gates Foundation Trust Sells Off the Last of Its Microsoft Stock
In the first quarter of 2026, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust sold its remaining Microsoft shares, fully exiting a position in the very company that created Gates's fortune — capping a long, deliberate diversification away from the stock. The endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy, managed separately from its grant-making through Cascade, is now anchored instead by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, railroads, and heavy-equipment makers. The sale underscored how thoroughly Gates's giving had decoupled from Microsoft's day-to-day fortunes.
2026
Gates's Charitable Endowment Is Now Led by Berkshire, Not Microsoft
By 2026, the publicly disclosed stock portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust — the endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy — was led not by Microsoft but by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, Canadian National Railway, Caterpillar, and Deere. Decades of diversification, plus Warren Buffett's stock gifts, left it concentrated in railroads, waste, heavy equipment, and Buffett's conglomerate, while Microsoft — the source of the original fortune — had largely been sold down. The unglamorous, value-oriented mix reflects the long stewardship of Gates's money manager, Michael Larson, through Cascade Investment.
[ARCHIVE_FUNDING] · INDEPENDENT · NO ADS
One developer. >300 verified entries. Zero ads. Forever free.
No sponsors, no paywall, no algorithm. If this archive has been useful to you, reader support is what keeps it running.