About.
Archival Image director Leigh Armstrong brings more than 20 years of experience administering and interpreting photography collections to her work with clients. A seasoned educator, collection manager, curator, and researcher skilled in navigating copyrights and negotiating permissions, Armstrong brings a holistic perspective to every project — whether related to the discovery of historical images for exhibition or the arrangement of collections for museum acquisition.
Armstrong’s career began at the Chicago History Museum, where she managed an institutional collection of more than two million prints and photographs. After leaving the Museum in 2007, she went on to work as a freelance archivist for photographer Steve Schapiro, and as a researcher for cultural projects. As a small business owner, Armstrong has had the great fortune to support dozens of wonderful clients on diverse and compelling projects. She’s worked with photography collections comprising millions of images, including photoarchives at the Johnson Publishing Company and the Chicago Park District, arranged archival collections for artists and cultural institutions, and advised estates on long-term planning for disposition. In addition to photographic materials, Armstrong has worked on collections with a wide array of unique cultural artifacts, such as courtroom drawings, historical medical devices, sketchbooks, advertising materials, and collectibles.
As a researcher, Armstrong’s early work consisted of supporting publishers or documentarians seeking unique content for projects with a Chicago focus. In 2014, she began working in exhibition development in earnest, taking on research and licensing for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Since then, she has supported NMAAHC as an image procurement specialist on temporary exhibitions, including We Return Fighting: The African American Experience in World War I and Afrofuturism: The History of Black Futures. She’s also supported the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Latino on ¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States and ¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa.
In 2019, the Barack Obama Foundation hired Armstrong to work on the development of exhibitions for the Obama Presidential Center Museum, supporting the Foundation’s curatorial and contracted design and media production teams. She remained on this project, serving as the Foundation’s sole Image and Media Procurement Specialist through the Museum’s public opening in 2026.
Archival Image, LLC, a nationally certified Women’s Business Entity located in Chicago, Illinois, is open for business and looking ahead to what comes next.
Clients.
The Obama Presidential Center Museum ✦ INTUIT: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art ✦ The National Museum of African American History and Culture ✦ Roger Brown Study Collection, Art Institute of Chicago ✦ The Museum of the American Latino ✦ Rebuild Foundation ✦ Chicago Public Library ✦ Chicago Botanic Garden ✦ Griffin Museum of Science and Industry ✦ Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern ✦ Pritzker Legal Research Center, Northwestern ✦ Illinois Institute of Technology, Galvin Library ✦ Lucas Museum of Narrative Art ✦ Robert McCormick Foundation ✦ Old Town School of Folk Music ✦ Johnson Publishing Company ✦ Chicago History Museum ✦ A & C Film Distribution ✦ Florentine Films ✦ Dairy Management, Inc. ✦ The Nation of Celestial Space ✦ Columbia College Chicago Library ✦ Black Robin Media ✦ UCAN