He had an intern go through his old photos, which he archives painstakingly, and unearthed a shot of Ms. Lewinsky hugging the president.
Especially effective was the newsreel, News on the March, in which he simulated archive film footage drawn from many periods; in some cases, he even scratched the film deliberately by dragging it over the cement floor of the editing room.
He has tracked down Szyk's descendants and the artist's archives, which he bought.
They are drawn from his archive, which he describes as the largest collection of black films.
In 1873 he founded the journal Archivio glottologico italiano ("Italian Linguistic Archives"), which he edited until 1907.
But by then he had produced a substantial photographic archive, which he bequeathed to Mr. Vo after they met a few years ago.
Homer Layne, a Pratt student from Tennessee, became his chief assistant and the steward of his archives, which he gave to the Met last year.
The interviews will be transcribed and translated into Hebrew and English, and stored in an archive which, he says, will be the basis of the new museum.
He was also more aware of the value of his extensive archive, which he meticulously trawled to select the 126 images included in the book.
Speaking of Russell's archive, which he donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, last year, he told me, "I just got lost in it after Arthur died.
There are also set designs and painted backdrops of skylines, which he tracked down in archives and by pounding on film studio doors.
