Archive of Hispanic Culture
Photographs of Latin American art and architecture
Collection digitized? Generally, no. Selected
images are included here to give a sample of the collection.
The Archive of Hispanic Culture is a photographic reference
collection for the study of Latin American art and architecture.
The collection, available in the Prints
and Photographs Reading Room, illustrates indigenous art
works dating from the colonial period through the twentieth
century as well as artistically influential monuments in Spain,
Portugal, the Philippines, and the United States. During its
most active period, 1940 to 1944, the archive was supported
in part by the Rockefeller Foundation and amassed over twelve
thousand photoprints, thirty-four hundred transparencies, and
forty-nine hundred photographic negatives (these figures include
duplicates). Work was continued on a reduced scale until 1947.
While most material was acquired by gift, purchase, or exchange
with other institutions, the archive commissioned photographic
surveys in several regions. The photographs are arranged by
medium -- architecture, decorative arts, sculpture, painting,
and graphic arts -- and subdivided by location, type of object,
or artist. A card index lists corresponding slides and negatives
for many items. The formation of the archive was accompanied
by the preparation of A Guide to the Art of
Latin America (Washington [Govt. Print. Off.] 1948. 480 p. Z5961.S72S5;
reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1971), edited by Robert C. Smith and Elizabeth
Wilder.
Some items for which copy photography has been requested
can be searched in the Prints
and Photographs Online Catalog.
Note: Information for this entry was compiled
in the late 1970's for inclusion in: Special Collections
in the Library of Congress: A Selective Guide. Compiled
by Annette Melville. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress,
1980. The entry has not been revised, except to add information
about digitized images and online catalog records.
U.S. Library of Congress. Reference Department. Guide
to the Special Collections of Prints & Photographs in the
Library of Congress (Washington: 1955. NE53.W3A52),
compiled by Paul Vanderbilt, no. 34.
Smith, Robert C., "The Archive of Hispanic Culture," QJLC,
v. 1, October/December 1943: 53-57.
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