Retired WWU professor donates portraits of Queen Elizabeth II to the national gallery in London

Western Washington University music professor Ford Hill quietly amassed his collection over the span of three decades.

Safely stored in cabinets in his Bellingham home sat more than 300 high-quality photographic portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, most of them signed by the photographer.

Hill, who grew up with a childhood fascination about British royalty, bought his first photo portrait of the queen in 1965, when he was a doctoral student. He thought it would be interesting to collect portraits of one person over time and decided she would be an ideal subject.