Visual Materials

Photographs of rural Mexico

Description: A group of 13 photographs (small snapshots and photographic postcards) depicting life in rural Mexico in the 1930s and 1940s. The five small photographs (3 x 3.5 inches) are scenes from a parade in a small town on September 16, 1938, Mexican Independence Day. Children are seen carrying a Mexican flag, a decorated truck has a banner that reads "Viva Mexico," and boys and girls are dressed in traditional vaquero attire. They were taken by an unknown photographer and have identifications in Spanish on the back. The eight commercially-made photographic postcards include scenes in Guanajuato; packed burros on narrow cobblestone roads; rows of clay pots, plates and cups alongside buildings; a woman making tortillas; and vaqueros loading hay on a donkey. There are two portraits with captions reading "Tipos Mexicanos," most likely made for the tourist trade. One shows a young man and woman posed next to a large cactus, holding hands, and the other is of a barefoot man wearing a straw poncho around his shoulders.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1930s-1940s
Call number: photCL 713
Provenance: Purchased from Max Rambod Inc., July 2023.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
Rights: The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.
Find out more: View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab); View in the Online Archive of California(Opens in new tab)

Photographs of rural Mexico

Visual Materials

A group of 13 photographs (small snapshots and photographic postcards) depicting life in rural Mexico in the 1930s and 1940s. The five small photographs (3 x 3.5 inches) are scenes from a parade in a small town on September 16, 1938, Mexican Independence Day. Children are seen carrying a Mexican flag, a decorated truck has a banner that reads "Viva Mexico," and boys and girls are dressed in traditional vaquero attire. They were taken by an unknown photographer and have identifications in Spanish on the back. The eight commercially-made photographic postcards include scenes in Guanajuato; packed burros on narrow cobblestone roads; rows of clay pots, plates and cups alongside buildings; a woman making tortillas; and vaqueros loading hay on a donkey. There are two portraits with captions reading "Tipos Mexicanos," most likely made for the tourist trade. One shows a young man and woman posed next to a large cactus, holding hands, and the other is of a barefoot man wearing a straw poncho around his shoulders.

photCL 713

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Collection of photographic postcards of Mexico

Visual Materials

A collection of 139 photographic postcards featuring Mexican cities, landmarks, and people, collected by American tourists during the first half of the twentieth century. The postcards are almost all captioned and many include the copyright of Mexican photography studios such as Fidel Figueroa, M.R. Martinez, Kodak Mexicana Ltd., Navarro Fot., Sabino Osuna, Hugo Brehme, and others. The postcards depict market and street scenes, portraits of Mexican farmers and vendors, churches and monuments, hotels, restaurants, musicians, bull cart drivers, and children, in locations such as Mexico City, Taxco, Acapulco, Monterrey, Cuernavaca, and Tijuana. There are also a few images of house interiors, showing furnishings and artwork. Twenty of the postcards were mailed from Mexico to family and friends in New York, and include cancelled stamps and handwritten notes from visiting Americans.

photCL 683

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Collection of photographic postcards of Mexico

Visual Materials

photCL 683

Image not available

W. C. White photograph album of road trip through Mexico City

Visual Materials

Photographs of an early automobile tour of Mexico City and vicinity, taken in April, 1906, approximately four years before the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution. The traveler, most likely an American, photographed his automobile in many locations, often where burros or horse wagons are mostly seen on the road. A woman is seen in the passenger seat sometimes, and possibly another car is part of the touring group. Images include stops at historic buildings, landmarks, street scenes, and the "Noche Triste Tree" in Mexico City; old Spanish architecture in Lerma; and travel through the countryside to Toluca. Local residents appear throughout, including men gathering water at a cistern, a woman washing clothes outside her house, and people at a Mexican National Railway train station. There are three images identified as "General Gonzales, Governor of the State of Mexico," riding in a car with other officials. Handwriting inside the album's cover identifies it as "W. C. White's pictures - Mexican trip, April 1906," and there are detailed captions throughout.

photCL 671

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[Photograph advertising an automobile trailer camper]

Visual Materials

View of a man and woman modeling an automobile camper trailer with flip top and a small kitchenette. The woman is pouring the man a glass of milk and a dog is in the foreground. The word "Deluxe" is inscribed on the vehicle hubcap.

photPF 20112

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Collection of Southern California and Mexico Photographs

Visual Materials

This collection contains photographs by commercial photographers, dated ca. 1890-1910, illustrating recreation and scenery on Catalina Island, a hotel and public parks in Southern California, and various historical sites and street scenes in Mexico City. Many of the photographs include tourists and local residents, such as bathers on Catalina Island, and people in parks and towns. Photographs of Catalina Island include views of Avalon, Sugarloaf Point, sailboats and glass-bottom boats, steamships, bathers at the beach, a tent city, and sailors of the steamship the "San Diego". California views include Missions San Gabriel, San Fernando, and San Juan Capistrano; the Coronado Hotel in San Diego; Central Park, St. James Park, and Hollenbeck Park (all based in Los Angeles); Adams Street in Los Angeles; the Shakespearean actress Helena [Madame] Modjeska's home in Orange County; and an interior view of Columbia Savings Bank's then president Aaron M. Ozum's residence at 3131 Figueroa Street, Los Angeles. Photographs of Mexico depict the Cathedral de Mexico, Paseo de la Reforma, interiors and exteriors of Castillo de Chapultepec, Hotel Iturbide, Mercado Volador, Canal de la Viga, the daily lives of Mexican citizens, the Zócalo (now known as the Plaza de la Constitución), and various street scenes. There are 12 miscellaneous photographs (102-114), in small square or circular format, mounted on board, that appear to be among the oldest here. They show cargo ships at shipping docks (one identified "McNab & Smith Draying") possibly in San Francisco, a steamship, and gardens. C. B. Waite photographed 19 of the 114 prints in this collection. Other photographers who contributed to this collection are Charles F. Ironmonger, Frank L. Park, Percy Cox and R. J. Carmichael, J. C. Hatton Noren F. Swenson, and the Special View Company. Two photographers were identified on some photographs only by their surnames: Graham and Scott.

photCL 110

Photographs of rural Mexico

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