2016 Calendar: Photographs and Photographers

2016 Calendar

Photographs & Photographers C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department The University of Texas at El paso Library

Photographs & Photographers The staff of the Special Collections Department at the University of Texas at El Paso Library recently completed a grant to preserve its photographic collections and make them more accessible. The funds came from the National Parks Service and were administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities. This calendar features a sampling of photographs from Special Collections. This is the first of what we hope will be a series of calendars; it highlights some of the photographs included in the grant and provides brief introductions to the photographers who took them. The photographers may be amateurs, journalists, or professionals, but each of them contributes to our understanding of their world. Photographic images help preserve the history of our region and are primary documents for research. Photographs are among the most sought-after resources from the Library’s Special Collections and support the work of writers, publishers, and filmmakers.

Many of the photos in our collections have been digitized and are available online. Please visit our website and browse PH074-1240J Jake Erlich , once the world's tallest man, performed in silent movies and traveled with Ringling Bros. Circus in the 1930s. In this photo he is posed with El Paso dance teacher Karma Deane and an unidentified child.

through some of the collections by going to http://libraryweb.utep.edu/special/databases.php.

Saving Photographic History Preserving older photographs presents many challenges for those responsible for their care. Because of the complex chemistry involved in making the materials for negatives, exposing, developing, and printing the images, and displaying the finished photographs, the items have within them the seeds of their own destruction. Glass plate negatives may crack and break. Photographic prints can fade, and the paper that they are printed on can become acidic and brittle. Improper handling makes matters worse. Librarians and archivists seeking to preserve the photographs use various strategies to preserve both digital copies of the images and the physical items

Nitrate-based negatives may become sticky, brittle, or wavy and discolored, depending on the storage environment.

themselves. Staff and students protect the photographs with archival enclosures and digitally scan the damaged or deteriorating images for preservation and access. Maintaining proper storage conditions and environmental controls can extend the life of these important records of this region.

Acetate-based negatives often show channeling when the image layer detaches from the base, and they can start to give off a strong vinegary smell.

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, The University of Texas at El paso Library

Manuel Carrillo

Manuel Carrillo, 1906-1989, was a Mexican photographer who is best known for documenting traditional Mexico. His photographs depict people, animals, and scenes from towns and villages. The University of Texas at El Paso purchased his papers and photographs from his widow in 1990. This Carrillo own list of photograph is from Carrillo’s most-requested or exhibited images. It was scanned from the original negative. The image is shown full-frame, although he often cropped the images for a different composition or emphasis. Carrillo assigned reference numbers to his images and described them in a sort of shorthand style. His descriptions are not titles per se, since he generally exhibited his photographs as untitled.

MS288-0158 NiĂąa con mano a cara (Girl with hand on face)

Sunday

January 2016

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday New Year’s Day

Saturday 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

18

19

20

21

22

23

25

26

27

28

29

30

17

24

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

31

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

The University of Texas at El paso Library

Samuel Fant

Samuel W. Fant, Jr. (1907 – 1990) was a portrait photographer with a studio in El Paso. He studied with well-known Hollywood glamour photographer, George Hurrell. He specialized in glamorous photos of women and dabbled in movie production. The Samuel Fant photograph collection, PH056, was donated to the UTEP Library by photographer JosÊ Ando Andow. It consists of files of sheet negatives arranged by name of the subject.

PH058 Bassett, Margery 02, Bassett Dancers

Sunday

February 2016

Monday

Tuesday 1

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

2

3

4

5

6

8

9

10

11

12

13

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

7

Valentine’s Day

Wednesday

14

Chinese New Year

President’s Day

Groundhog Day

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

The University of Texas at El paso Library

Alfonso Casasola

Alfonso Casasola, a member of a famous family of Mexican photographers, came to El Paso in the 1920s after several years in the Mexican consular service. He established the Casasola Studio (also known by its Spanish name, Estudio Casasola) at 511 S. El Paso Street. Most of the photographs in this collection are from the early work of the studio.

Since Mr. Alfonso Casasola died in 1948, work from other photographers is also included in this collection. Casasola Studio employed many young photographers over the years, several of whom went on to start their own studios. For instance, Mr. José Andow began teenage and as an apprentice while still a teenager, worked in the studio both before and after his service in World War II. The Casasola Studio collection has more than 50,000 images. Only about 2,500 have been scanned.

PH041-04-00049 Cipriano Castillo y sus Guitarristas played tangos and boleros on a radio station in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in the 1930s. The band members, Cirilo Villanza, Cipriano Castillo, Jesús Lamarque and Vicente Hernández, attended Bowie High School and later all served in the U.S. armed forces in World War II.

Sunday

March 2016

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1

2

3

4

5

10

11

12

17

18

19

25

26

6

7

8

9

Daylight Savings Time Begins

13

14

15

16

Palm Sunday

20

21

22

23

Easter Sunday

27

28

29

30

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

St. Patrick’s Day

24

Cesar Chavez Day

Good Friday

31

The University of Texas at El paso Library

Oscar C. Bernard

Oscar C. Bernard was a musician, photographer, inventor, and businessman. He was born in 1861 and moved to El Paso in 1900. He opened a photography studio and developed a stereopticon machine that combined sound with images projected on a screen. Bernard lived to be one hundred years old. The Oscar C. Bernard photographs, PH047, consist of glass plate negatives, magic lantern slides, and sheet negatives. The collection was donated to the library

by Leon C. Metz.

PH047 042 Glass Plate 8x10 Oscar Bernard and wife in their new car

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

April 2016 Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

Passover Begins

29

Last Night of Passover

The University of Texas at El paso Library

30

Millard G. McKinney Collection

Millard G. McKinney, or Cdr. McKinney, was a retired naval officer who grew up in El Paso. His step-father was a cavalryman, which sparked his life-long interest in the U.S. Cavalry and Fort Bliss.

Millard McKinney did historical photo research for several El Paso authors and authored a work himself on Biggs Field.

McKinney was also a skilled amateur photographer, who photographed many civic events and buildings in El Paso. The McKinney papers contain an estimated 60,000 prints and negatives, most of which relate to El Paso. He collected historical photographs and copied photographs from private collections.

MS505 005 Glass Plate 5x7 Gawkers watch a fire on roof of the Hotel Paso del Norte.

Sunday

Mother’s Day

Monday

Tuesday

May 2016 Wednesday

1

2

3

4

8

9

10

15

16

22

29

Memorial Day

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

5

6

7

11

12

13

14

17

18

19

20

21

23

24

25

26

27

28

30

31

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

Cinco de Mayo

The University of Texas at El paso Library

Federico Wulff

PH024 0001 Glass Plate 4.25 x 6 Wulff home in Torreon, Coahuila

Federico Wulff was a German-American engineer born in San Antonio and educated in Hanover, Germany. He lived and worked in Torre贸n, Coahuila, for most of his adult life, serving for part of that time as the German consul. He moved to Torre贸n in the 1890s with his family (who also lived for a time in San Antonio) and experienced the disruption of the Mexican Revolution. The collection contains photographs of his family, street scenes, dam construction in Coahuila, and events from the Mexican Revolution in and around Torre贸n. Some images are from San Antonio and El Paso. The collection consists of negatives and prints from the early twentieth century, including some glass plate negatives, stereo images and panoramic photographs. The collection was donated by his daughter Tulitas Jamieson, who wrote an autobiographical memoir Tulitas of Torre贸n.

Sunday

Monday

5

Ramadan Begins

12

Father’s Day

19

26

Summer Solstice

Tuesday

June 2016 Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1

2

3

4

6

7

8

9

10

11

13

14

15

16

17

18

20

21

22

23

24

25

27

28

29

30

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

The University of Texas at El paso Library

The University of texas at El Paso Collection

The UTEP Collection contains thousands of photographs, negatives, and slides, which date from around 1914 to 2014. The collection’s images were taken by professional photographers as well as by UTEP student and staff photographers.

Many of the photographs in the UTEP Collection were originally created for use in student publications, such as the Flowsheet and The Prospector.

These visual records of students, faculty, staff, buildings, and campus activities have helped to document UTEP’s history over the past one hundred years.

MS001-pool-01 Diver at the Texas College of Mines pool, late 1940s

Sunday

Monday

3

Independence Day

Tuesday

July 2016 Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday 1

2

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

The University of Texas at El paso Library

Ada Tharp Collection

This elaborate photo album or lap desk contains photographs of African Americans and other individuals of undetermined ethnicity dating from approximately 1870 to 1925. The types of photographs include tintypes, cabinet cards, cartes de visite, silver gelatin prints, and photo booth snapshots. Little is known about the creator of the collection: the album was abandoned in a freight-forwarding facility in Kentucky, where an employee took it to a local library because he did not want it destroyed. The librarian noticed that many of the photographs had been taken by El Paso and New Mexico photographers, so she contacted the UTEP Library, which accepted the collection as a donation.

PH038-066 Unidentified young woman with a small dog

Sunday

August 2016

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

The University of Texas at El paso Library

Tom Lea, Jr.

This collection contains many images that reflect the life and work of the El Paso-born artist and writer. Some of the most interesting photographs were taken by the artist while he was working as a war correspondent for Life Magazine during World War II, most especially his travels across North Africa to Asia. Others show models for paintings, examples of his work, his wife Sarah Lea, his family life, and research for his books about the King Ranch.

MS476-220-43 Photograph taken by Tom Lea during his trip to Asia.

Sunday

September 2016

Monday

4

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1

2

3

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

Labor Day

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

The University of Texas at El paso Library

Gertrude Fitzgerald Collection

PH025- i203 Young National Guard soldiers, ca. 1916, Camp Cotton

The Gertrude Fitzgerald Collection, PH025, consists primarily of photographs taken by Gertrude Fitzgerald, a serious amateur photographer who lived in Mexico and El Paso. Many of the photos show her family life or people and places related to the travel and work of her husband. Images of the Fitzgerald children in the mountainous town of Madera, Chihuahua, are included, as well as photographs of workers in the Pearson Lumber Company near Madera and scenes from the early years of the Mexican Revolution. After the family moved to El Paso during the Mexican Revolution, Mrs. Fitzgerald took many pictures of the eastern borde and scenes of downtown El Paso. slopes of the Franklin Mountains, Fort Bliss, the military buildup along the border,

Sunday

October 2016

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday 1

2

Rosh Hashana

3

4

9

10

11

16

17

23

24

30

Halloween

5

6

7

8

12

13

14

15

18

19

20

21

22

25

26

27

28

29

Yom Kippur

31

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

The University of Texas at El paso Library

Stout-Feldman Studio

In 1895, California native Fred J. Feldman leased and later purchased the photographic business of the Bushong Studio in downtown El Paso, Texas. The Fred J. Feldman Studio thrived during the 1910s and 1920s and became the premier photographic business in El Paso. Feldman was particularly well known for his skill in portraiture. He photographed many prominent businessmen, bankers, judges, mayors, and attorneys as well as society women and community groups. In 1916, Samuel Stout came to El Paso to manage the Feldman Studio. After taking over the studio following Feldman’s death in 1923, Stout designed a Spanish-style building for the photographic business at 1330 Montana Avenue, and the business became the Stout-Feldman Studio. The studio continued to take photographs of local residents, buildings, and events and took yearly photographs of students and organizations at local schools and colleges, including the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy (later called Texas Western College and the University of Texas at El Paso) and New Mexico College A&M (now known as New Mexico State University). After Samuel Stout’s death in 1954, his son Walter continued the studio until the late 1960s.

J. H. Hicks, c. 1910-1915, rancher and cattleman 8” x 10” glass plate negative, no. 823 G

Sunday

Daylight Savings Time Ends

November 2016

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

1

2

3

Saturday 4

5

11

12

6

7

8

9

10

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

Thanksgiving Day

Veteran’s Day

The University of Texas at El paso Library

C.E. Waterhouse, Jr.

C.E. Waterhouse, Jr., was a professional architect, but he was also a photographer. His papers contain an important body of work relating to the vernacular and the modern architecture of the American Southwest and Mexico.

Also a contemporary and close friend of artist Tom Lea, Waterhouse documented many of Lea’s artistic projects and took pictures of models in period costumes for Lea to use in painting the murals for the El Paso Federal Courthouse. Besides his documentation of Tom Lea and his work, Waterhouse also conducted photographic studies of several colonial buildings in the El Paso area, New Mexico, and Mexico.

Many of his slides of archaeological sites in Mexico were donated to the University of Texas in Austin.

MS458, Lea Centennial-04 Tom Lea working on the West Texas Room for the 1936 Texas Centennial in Dallas

Sunday

Christmas Day

December 2016

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Christmas Eve Chanukah Begins

24

26

27

28

29

30

New Year’s Eve

31

25

Kwanzaa (until Jan.1)

Winter Solstice

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department

The University of Texas at El paso Library

Oscar C. Bernard

C.E. Waterhouse

Alfonso Casasola

Manuel Carrillo

Fred Feldman

Gertrude Fitzgerald

Samuel W. Stout

2016 Calendar Photographers

Samuel Fant

Plus works from the Ada Tharp, Federico Wulff, Millard C. McKinney, Tom Lea, Jr. and the University of Texas at El Paso collections.

C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, The University of Texas at El paso Library