Latin America and the Caribbean: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints

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About the Collection

The Latin America and the Caribbean: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints digital collection provides a sample of the special collections items relating to these regions. The items portray the landscape, people, and technology of various countries, including Costa Rica, Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador, and Cuba in the late 19th century. The online collection includes a set of photos of St. Pierre, Martinique, before and after the eruption of Mt. Pelee in 1902. DeGolyer Library also holds significant collections relating to Mexico, which are found in Mexico: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints.

Highlights include:

  • Charles Lummis Photographs of Mexico and Peru: cyanotypes of Peru, circa 1890-1906.
  • Costa Rica: views of landscape, coffee plantations, Poas Volcano, Turrialba Volcano, and railroad construction, circa 1885-1890.
  • Edward A. Flint Collection of Views of Peru and Bolivia: views of scenery and railroads in Bolivia and Peru, circa 1869-1878.
  • Mt. Pelee Volcano, St. Pierre, Martinique: album showing Martinique and St. Pierre before, during, and after the horrific eruption of Mt. Pelee in 1902.
  • Photographs of Jamaica, Trinidad, and Venezuela: 48 photographs of towns, harbors, people, railroads and 1896 maps of Caracas and Venezuela y Sus Ferrocarriles. Also included are views of sugar cane fields and workers, a photographer with a view camera, plantation houses, workers from India in Jamaica, Spanish Town, Jamaica, and some formal studio portraits of Indian workers in Trinidad by Felix Morin.
  • San Salvador, El Salvador: photographs of parks, a cemetery, and a house in San Salvador, circa 1900, by landscape photographer Peter Fassold.
  • Spanish American War: a series of three photographs showing the ceremony marking the end of Spanish rule in Cuba on January 1, 1899, and the beginning of the U.S. occupation of Cuba.