Importing 295 png images...help

[Andrew Meit]

Greetings...

I have 295 24 bit rgb color png 72 dpi at 1900 x 2200 pixels...It seems LC dies after the 115th image is imported.
I have tried both 4.6.4/5.0, both die. I can import roughly 100 images per card, but when I reference as icons for transparent btns all the images, LC still dies. I am stumped.
So, great graphic wizards...how can I import all these images? The goal is layering the images to recreate an artistic page and hiding/showing each layer for study how the art was made. 

Thank you.