About the Collection
DeGolyer Library holds an extensive collection of Mexican photography, circa 1865-1935, totaling approximately 16,000 photographs and 3,000 negatives, along with historic texts, manuscripts, books, pamphlets, documents, maps, and more. The documents included go back to the 18th century. Subjects include landscapes, indigenous peoples, railroads, mining, agriculture, tourist views, historical events, the Mexican Revolution, and much more. More than 110 photographers are represented in the digital collection, including Lorenzo Becerril, Alfred Briquet, Hugo Brehme, Walter H. Horne, William Henry Jackson, Manuel Ramos, Charles B. Waite, Robert Runyon, H. J. Gutierrez, many who are not as well-known, and collaborative publishers such as Cruces y Campa and Mayo & Weed.
Note: Photographers documenting the Mexican Revolution captured scenes of every aspect of the conflict. As such, this collection contains items with graphic content that may be upsetting to some users, and viewer discretion is advised.
Highlights include:
- Agustin de Iturbide Papers, 1822-1824: handwritten transcripts of imprints and correspondence related to Iturbide's reign as the first emperor of Mexico.
- Album Artistico: 1856-1873, handwritten biographies of 18th and 19th century artists in Puebla, Mexico written in Spanish by artist and sculptor Bernardo Olivares e Iriarte. Also included are 45 pen and ink and watercolor drawings and photographs of some of the artists tipped into the album.
- Album de la Collection de Duc de Massa, Colonel des Guides de l'Empereur Napoleon III: ca. 1860s, carte de visite album assembled during the Second French Intervention in Mexico by André Philippe Alfred Régnier, comte de Gronau, duc de Massa. Régnier was the 3rd Duke of Massa and served in the French invading army stationed in Mexico City. The album contains portraits of the Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota and their families in Europe as well as their imperial staff in Mexico.
- Album, Mexican Revolution: 1913, photographic prints of the Mexican Revolution by Manuel Ramos illustrating damage in Mexico City during the February 1913 uprising, also called La Decena Trágica ("the Ten Tragic Days") against President Francisco I. Madero.
- Biblioteca del Niño Mexicano: 1899-1901, a series of politicized children's books illustrated by lithographer and caricaturist José Guadalupe Posada.
- Cananea, Mexico: 20 photographs of Cananea, Mexico, 1906-1909, located just across the Arizona border showing striking miners, men with guns, demonstrations, the mine site, and American personnel. Among these are views of Colonel William C. Greene of Greene Consolidated Copper Company addressing strikers, June 3, 1906. The conflict is considered the beginnings of the Mexican Revolution.
- Collection of Early Postcards of Mexico: Real photographic postcards and early color halftones of Mexico showing people in native costumes, vendors, markets, craftsmen, Mexican people working, vaqueros, fishermen, street scenes, shops, restaurants, bars, hotels, American tourists, commercial buildings, harbors, railroad stations, customs buildings, and cathedrals.
- Giesecke Family Collection of Photographs and Panoramas of Mexico: 1895-1938, photographs, real photographic postcards and panoramas including views of markets, tourist sites, homes, people in native dress, dignitaries, parades, bullfights, General Porfirio Diaz, the 1910 Centennial, villages, agriculture, mining, ships and railroad lines in Torreon and other cities in Mexico. Panoramas by Eugenio B. Downing include some of which are more than eight feet long.
- Ben P. Manning Collection of Texas and Mexico: 1910-1916, photographs and real photographic postcards of oil and petroleum production in Mexico showing derricks, fires, Potrero del Llano, Tampico, genre scenes, peasants, and mountains.
- Oil Fields in Mexico: 1910-1911, album of views of oil fields owned by the Mexican Petroleum Company and the Huestaco Oil Company including the Ebano, Laguna, Chijol, Casiano, and Cerro Azul Wells, as well as the Pearson's Potrero Well and Doz Bocas Well.
- Porfirio Diaz and Mexican troops, Cinco de Mayo: 1902, panoramic photographs with captions in Spanish describing Porfirio Diaz (1830-1915), president of Mexico, reviewing troops on May 5, 1902, the 40th anniversary of the battle of Puebla after which the Cinco de Mayo celebration was named.
- Stereographs of Mexico: 1860-1910, stereographs of Mexico showing towns, markets, churches, indigenous people, mining, railroads landscapes and architectural views in Cholula, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Puebla, Orizaba, Amecameca, San Luis Potosi, Tampico, Vera Cruz, and Zacatecas.
- Vera Cruz: ca. 1866-1867, a leather-bound album of Veracruz, Mexico, with albumen prints mounted one per page. Included are city views, public buildings, churches, markets, houses, ships, harbor scenes, railroads, landscapes, indigenous people, and an image of French naval personnel and women on a ship.
