Elmer and Diane Powell Collection on Mexico and the Mexican Revolution

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About the Collection

The Elmer and Diane Powell Collection on Mexico and the Mexican Revolution consists of approximately 7,000 items that focus primarily on the Revolution period, including key political and military leaders. Elmer Powell, a lifelong student of Texas history, began in the early 1970s collecting Republic of Texas bank and Civil War county notes. Later, he shifted his focus to the study of money from across the Rio Grande and the whole Mexican Revolution period, 1910-1920. Over the years, Powell’s collecting expanded to include books, maps, periodicals, manuscripts, photographs, artwork, posters, newspapers, coins, medals, sheet music and memorabilia, as well as earlier materials. Several rare documents include the signatures of Presidents Díaz, Madero, Carranza, and Obregón and such revolutionaries as Francisco “Pancho” Villa and Emiliano Zapata.

The Powell Collection is particularly strong in photography, including more than 6,700 real photograph postcards. Many individuals during the Revolution became photographers with simple box cameras, selling photographs printed on postcard stock illustrating the violence, as well as locations and scenery. Some of the highlights include photo postcards of the Revolution and important photographs of the Ten Tragic Days in 1913 not found elsewhere. There are images by noted photographers such as Walter H. Horne, Manuel Ramos, Robert Runyon, H. J. Gutierrez, and Cruz Sanchez, and those whose names and pictures are not well-known but are of historical importance. Also of note are 22 original drawings by cartoonist and political satirist, Oscar Cesare, as well as a group of stereographs by the Kilburn Brothers, 1873, including views of parks, markets, and cities, a railroad through the mountainside, and prominent cathedrals in Mexico City and the surrounding states.

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.