Donald Buell (1907-1960) was a Michigan State University professor of Speech. He joined the MSU faculty in 1937 and facilitated the purchase of the Van Damm Theatre Photograph collection by MSU Libraries in 1959. Buell maintained weekly program, "Curtain Going Up" for WKAR radio broadcast (from 1938) and television show (from 1954) which showcased the theater arts and frequently utilized this collection. Throughout his career, Buell mentored theatre students and promoted theater arts in the community by way of the M. S. U. Players (Michigan State Players) and Theta Alpha Phi.

Florence Vandamm was born in England in approximately 1883. She studied painting and turned to photography after World War I. Upon marrying her husband, Tommy Vandamm, he decided to join her in the profession. The couple emigrated to New York in 1923, working for Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines and became some of the foremost photographers of the American stage. After Tommy's death in 1944, Florence Vandamm continued the business focusing on theatrical life and the figures in it. She studied the plays as a director, watching each production several times before she took the shots to use for publicity. Her clients included Maurice Evans, Paul Muni, John Gielgud, Judith Anderson, Burgess Meredith, Alfred Lunt, Leonard Bernstein, and Lynn Fontaine. Florence Vandamm was the first woman to be a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.