GLASS NEGATIVES - SOUTH AMERICA 1890 - 1920
MAX T. VARGAS Maximiliano Telésforo Vargas (unconfirmed) South American, 1874-1959
FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
The Photographs below are from a group of glass negatives. There are no notes to establish photographer, date, content, or provenance.
I have found the photographer, Harriet Chalmers Adams and Max T. Vargas to have a potential overlap in the travel timeline and the topics she liked to photograph.
Harriet Chalmers Adams toured South America and published, From the North to the South : some sights I have seen in South America, August 1905-May 1906, with her husband Franklin Adams and Peruvian photographer, Max T. Vargas.
Her predominent focus was cultural, including street scenes, women and families, architecture, and a love of animals sometimes sharing them with zoos in the United States. She worked for National Geographic once she established herself as a proven photographer and author.
These negatives need to be cleaned and reprinted to improve the quality. I will put forth an argument with points of comparison that I have found to this date.
 |
The Andes, circa 1904-1909. possibly Lake Salinas, Peru with native Andean flamingos. |
BOLIVA
LA PAZ
Negative I:
 |
An indigenous woman, La Paz, Bolivia, circa 1904-1909. An early glass plate image, as the collodion process is sensitive to the UV spectrum, which makes skin with a high melanin content appear as shiny black, much like the photos of Edward Curtiss. PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE STYLE OF MAX T. VARGAS AND HARRIET CHALMERS ADAMS FROM THEIR TRIPS THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA  |
Clothing, hats, hairstyle. architecture, ca. 1905
 |
A group of indigenous people, La Paz, Bolivia, circa 1904-1909 PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE STYLE OF MAX T. VARGAS AND HARRIET CHALMERS ADAMS FROM THEIR TRIPS THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA |
As a comparison,
below is a similar photograph. The author surmised the photographer to be Harriet Chalmers Adams (please see note). Harriet Chalmers Adams toured South America and published, From the North to the South : some sights I have seen in South America, August 1905-May 1906, Harriet Chalmers Adams (Photographer), Franklin Pierce Adams, Max T. Vargas (Photographer)¹
 |
| PHOTOGRAPHER: MAX T. VARGAS (Maximiliano Telésforo Vargas) |
https://johannarosbeck.wordpress.com/2021/03/21/fotografia-del-sur-andino/
TIMELINE FOR HARRIET CHAMBERS ADAMS
Locations where flamingos are found
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three Vargas Photographs from the Library of Congress
 |
Chola woman, full-length portrait, standing, facing right, La Paz, Bolivia] About This Item Obtaining Copies Access to Original Title: [Chola woman, full-length portrait, standing, facing right, La Paz, Bolivia] Date Created/Published: [between ca. 1900 and 1923] Medium: 1 photographic print. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-111676 (b&w film copy neg.) Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication. Call Number: LOT 11356-26 <item> [P&P] Notes: Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection. Photo by Max T. Vargas, Arequipa. Subjects: Women--Clothing & dress--Bolivia--1900-1930. Format: Photographic prints--1900-1930. Portrait photographs--1900-1930. Collections: Carpenter Collection Bookmark This Record: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/94509890/ View the MARC Record for this item. |
 |
Title: [An Aymara Indian, full-length, standing, facing slightly right, Bolivia] Date Created/Published: [between ca. 1900 and 1923] Medium: 1 photographic print. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-108270 (b&w film copy neg.) Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication. Call Number: LOT 11356-26 <item> [P&P] Notes: Photographic print by Max T. Vargas, Arequipa, La Paz. Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection. Subjects: Indians of South America--Bolivia--Clothing & dress--1900-1930. Aymara Indians--Clothing & dress--1900-1930. Format: Photographic prints--1900-1940. Portrait photographs--1900-1940. Collections: Carpenter Collection Bookmark This Record: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/93509762/ |
 |
Title: [View of Arequipa and Misti volcano, Peru] / fotografia Max. T. Vargas. Creator(s): Vargas, Max T. (Maximiliano Telésforo), approximately 1873-1959, photographer Date Created/Published: [between ca. 1890 and 1923] Medium: 1 photographic print. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-108100 (b&w film copy neg.) Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication. Call Number: LOT 11356-18 <item> [P&P] Notes: Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection. Frank G. Carpenter (1855 Ohio-1924 Nanking) Subjects: Volcanoes--Peru--Arequipa--1890-1930. Arequipa (Peru)--1890-1930. Format: Photographic prints--1890-1930. Collections: Carpenter Collection Bookmark This Record: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/9350925 |
Compare
 | |
|
Published articles by Harriet Chambers Adams in Worldcat
Link: https://www.worldFrom the North to the South : some sites I have seen in South America vargasdcat.org/identities/lccn-n92122677/
1. From the North to the South : some sights I have seen in South America, August 1905-May 1906.
Authors:Harriet Chalmers Adams (Photographer), Franklin Pierce Adams, Max T. Vargas (Photographer)¹h
SOURCE: https://writingroughshod.com/2016/10/12/a-unique-lens-on-wwi-the-photography-of-harriet-chalmers-adams/
Original Source: Kathryn M. Davis, The Forgotten Life of Harriet Chalmers Adams: Geographer, Explorer, Feminist. M.A. Thesis, San Francisco State University, History, 1995. 2009.
https://scholarworks.csun.edu/handle/10211.2/2790?show=full
Kathryn M. Davis, The Forgotten Life of Harriet Chalmers Adams: Geographer, Explorer, Feminist. M.A. Thesis, San Francisco State University, History, 1995. 2009.
https://scholarworks.csun.edu/handle/10211.2/2790?show=full
From Wikipedia:
Harriet Chalmers Adams From Wikipedia: Blue pencil.svg wikidata:Q670843
Harriet Chalmers Adams
Description
American explorer, journalist, photographer and writer
Date of birth/death
22 October 1875 Edit this at Wikidata
17 July 1937 Edit this at Wikidata
Location of birth/death
Stockton
Nice
Authority control
wikidata:Q670843: Q670843 VIAF: 63212103 ISNI: 0000 0000 3176 6018 LCCN: n92122677 GND: 1090790120 Koninklijke: 229635946 WorldCat.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143236998@N03/sets/72157675017192106/
PERU AND BOLIVIA
THE ANDES
Negative IV:
 |
The Andes, circa 1904-1909. possibly Lake Salinas, Peru with native Andean flamingos. |
Locations where flamingos are found
Laguna Hedionda, lagoon located in the Bolivian Altiplano near the Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia.
Compare
 |
Harriet Chalmers Adams and her driver on the old Inca road to Cuzco, Peru. On her journeys through Latin America, Adams travelled mostly by horseback. She found her smelling salts worked to revive sick pack animals. PHOTOGRAPH BY HARRIET CHALMERS ADAMS, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION |
BRAZIL
Negative V.: Men with chairs and wares on a street outside a tall wall. The wall could enclose a fort, town, estate, zoo, cemetery, or church. A name is posted on the entrance.
 |
| NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC |
Did the photographers retrace their 1904-1906 steps in 1920?
ARGENTINA
BUENOS AIRES
Below is the Old Congress of the Nation building located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America.
Negative VI:
 |
Old Congress of the Nation. Both chambers met there from 1864 to 1905. It was located on the corner of the current Balcarce and Hipólito Yrigoyen streets, in Buenos Aires.
Negative VIII:
 |
| Old Congress of the Nation. Both chambers met there from 1864 to 1905. It was located on the corner of the current Balcarce and Hipólito Yrigoyen streets, in Buenos Aires. |
 |
The Old National Congress Building - Buenos Aires, Argentina The Old National Congress, inaugurated in 1864 by President Bartolome Mitre and closed in 1905, when they moved to the current Congress Palace. Located in Plaza de Mayo, on the corner of the Balcarce and Hipolito Yrigoyen streets, metres from the Casa Rosada, seat of executive power. Date: circa 1902. PHOTOGRAPHER: H. G. OLDS. PRINTER: IMPR. F. WEISS CALLE CHILE RD. BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA.² © Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection |
NEGATIVE IX:
 |
| Governor's Palace, Buenos Aires, Argentina, c. 1905 |
NEGATIVE X:
 |
| Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires, Argentina, c. 1905 |
Franklin Pierce Adams worked for the Inca Mining and Rubber Company and traveled to South American January 1904. Worked for the Pan American Union, Conference in Argentina 1905 and Buenos Aires 1910.
From the 1890s to the 1920s rubber from the Peruvian jungle was in high demand, it was used to produce tires for automobiles, waterproof shoes and clothes.
 |
| Balcarce Street, Paseo Colón Avenue (Casa Rosada Museum). area. The result of a long construction process, the present building was officially inaugurated in 1898, during the second presidency of General Julio A. Roca. area. Casa Rosada is the result of a long construction process, the present building was officially inaugurated in 1898, during the second presidency of General Julio A. Roca. |
NEGATIVE XI:
 |
| Plaza de Mayo, Fountain viewed from the river, c. 1905 |
NEGATIVE XII:
 |
| Plaza de Mayo, c. 1905 |
NEGATIVE XIII:
NEGATIVE XIV:
 |
| Old Fort at river |
 |
| Fort at river during construction. |
NEGATIVE XV: Following the River toward the zoo.
 |
| Parrot House, Zoological park, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
Below are two photographs of a man with a pack filled with zoo animals. The ornate building behind the zoologist is identified by signage indicating, "Parma," possibly animals from the Parma region or prairie animals. Below these photographs is a photograph of Harriet Chalmers Adams with a nutria. She was known to have taken an animal from one of her trips back to a zoo in the United States
A small fenced cottage. Child and man dressed in white behind fence.
 |
Harriet Chalmers Adams at the zoo, 1912 (b/w photo) Harriet Chalmers Adams at the zoo with a nutria, 1912 (b/w photo) by Harris & Ewing (1905-45)³; Private Collection; (add.info.: Harriet Chalmers (1875-1937) American explorer, writer and photographer, married Franklin Pierce Adams in 1899. Franklin Pierce Adams .webp) MENTOR  She was mentored by Charles Wellington Furlong (1874–1967) was an American explorer, writer, artist and photographer from Massachusetts. Harper's magazine funded him on a trip to South America around 1909. His article "The Southernmost people of the world" came out of this trip. Even after the article was written he continued to travel and explore in South America. |
Dr. Walton Todd Berrus
These are the South American negatives. They are possibly Harriet's Chalmers-Adams' or Max Vargas'. I need to clean them yet and rescan them. I have the 4-fold acid free archive envelopes to store and protect them.
Initials possibly, CAH (CHALMERS-ADAMS, HARRIET). I have been reading her National Geographic articles 1908-1909.
She worked with Dr. Walton Todd Berrus of the Inca Mining and Rubber Company as did her husband. Franklin Pierce Adams also worked for the Pan American Union. The Pan American group met in Buenes Aires, Argentina 1909 and Rio de Janeiro in 1904.
Compare
 |
| Max T. Vargas. Misti Crater, Arequipa, 1900. Col. Martín Chambi Photographic Archive, Cusco. Misti, also known as Putina or Guagua Putina, is a stratovolcano of andesite, dacite, and rhyolite located in southern Peru near the city of Arequipa. With its seasonally snow-capped, symmetrical cone, Misti stands at 5,822 metres (19,101 ft) above sea level and lies between the Chachani massif (6,075 m or 19,931 ft) and Pichu Pichu volcano (5,669 m or 18,599 ft). Its last eruption was in 1985 (38 years ago), 198 years after its previous documented eruption. |
 |
| Franklin Pierce Adams and Max T. Vargas (unconfirmed) |
Photographers:
 |
| Max T. Vargas. Brothers Adolfo and Juan Wagner and friends, Arequipa, 1904. Col. Maruja de Wagner. |
.jpeg)
Carlos and Miguel Vargas
The Vargas brothers opened their studio in 1912, after apprenticing for Max T. Vargas, an unrelated photographer who ran the busiest photo studio in Arequipa at the turn of the century.
The Estudio de Arte Vargas Hermanos was almost immediately successful. The 1910s and ’20s were a vibrant time in Arequipa. The flamboyant brothers were at the epicenter of a fashionable society created by the newfound wealth and exposure to European styles brought to the southern Andes. Artists, poets, writers and musicians passed through the brothers’' studio, which became a center for art and culture in the city. Their night photography adventures evolved into highbrow social events for their bohemian entourage.
.jpg) |
| Harry Grant Olds |
 |
| Martin Chambi at Macchu Picchu, which was ‘re-discovered’ (and plundered) in the 1860s/70s, after laying hidden for nearly 300 years. The Spanish never found it, so unlike most Inca cities, it remained unmolested. Technique: Framed by an open door or window frame. Martin Chambi |
SOURCE: https://thevintagent.com/2019/09/04/martin-chambi-i-am-not-hispanic-i-am-pre-hispanic/B7d39e96-8ebe-4163-93c7-7d1b0e2370e0 V700
Compare
%20corner%20letters.jpg)
.jpg)
%20volcanoes.jpg)
%20two%20people%20volcano.jpg)
In 1904, Adams went on her first major expedition, a three-year trip around South America with her husband, during which they visited every country, and traversed the Andes on horseback.
Compare
My photography is an art from Arequipa. Martin Chambi
Published articles by Harriet Chambers Adams in Worldcat
 |
circa 1904-1909 PHOTOGRAPHER MAX VARGAS Source: |
Arequipa
"Between the 19th and 20th centuries, two people from Arequipa laid the technical and conceptual foundations of modern photography in Peru. Max T. Vargas and Emilio Díaz were the teachers of other contemporaries such as Martín Chambi and the Vargas brothers. His art is reflected in the recent exhibition at the Icpna in Miraflores.
By: Daniel Contreras M.
By: Daniel Contreras M.
My photography is an art from Arequipa. Martin Chambi
Mandatory look. Recovering one by one the visual remnants of an era—and of the country's social fabric at the dawn of the 20th century—breaths new life into the nearly forgotten careers of two photography pioneers. Together with Martín Chambi or the brothers Carlos and Miguel Vargas , the names of Max T. Vargas and Emilio Díaz made southern Peru the most important place for this art. And to Arequipa, as the most representative, where art nouveau and the image loaded with character psychology find their best support.
Time passes. The revaluation of this artistic phenomenon occurs with the rescue and implementation of various investigations focused on the investigation and subsequent exposure of the invaluable photographic legacy. Even turning non-existent files into something tangible. Max T. Vargas and Emilio Díaz, two founding figures in the history of photography in Peru, is the result of the investigation undertaken by Andrés Garay Albújar and the critic Jorge Villacorta .
For both curators, these characters pursued an aesthetic modernity in their portraits and views, at the beginning of an era whose path was a national modernity plan. The exploitation of mines and other natural reserves opened the doors to the presence of foreign investment. The arrival of new and better teams, the creation of contests and the formation of a hopeful elite are the breeding ground for their work.
Vargas (believed to be born in 1874) and Díaz (1870) began their professional careers in Arequipa around 1896. Already considered artists, their entrepreneurial skills would lead them to be part of a history of commercial rivalry that led to a fruitful –and fierce– competence.
Rivals under the Misti
These direct opponents had somewhat related lives. The first opened his studio in Arequipa in 1896. The second, that same year. But in 1904 there was greater rivalry between the two. Díaz was a painter and photographer, and his clientele was the middle class. Vargas – whose son Alberto is the famous creator of Playboy magazine's Vargas Girls – deployed his services in high places.
The decline of this duo began around 1920. Max T. Vargas disappeared from Arequipa that year and reappeared in Lima in the mid-1930s, dedicated to the production of postcards lacking the level of excellence he had achieved. Díaz passed away in 1931. In the absence of his direct competitor, Vargas waned in his style and by 1930 he left the practice. He died in Lima, in 1959, unknown. Since then, mystery has surrounded the location of the files, made up of dozens of negatives. The exhibition, made up of numerous original photos of both (the confrontation continues years later), partly tries to make up for this deficiency.
The project
The absence of their archives led a team headed by curators Villacorta and Garay to look at family albums, private collections, and pages from books, newspapers, and magazines of the time. They both write that their project "was proposed as an investigation with the purpose of reconstructing the space of these two photographers without detaching them from the context that gave them meaning."
The exhibition will close its cycle with the presentation of an important book, which contains images – almost paintings – recovered from oblivion. Other Arequipa photographers such as Ricardo Villalba, Luis Alviña, Ramón Muñiz, Navarro Martínez , among others, are also waiting for their rediscovery. The exhibition will remain until November 18 at Angamos Oeste 160, Miraflores."
(Cultural section of the daily El Peruano. Tuesday, November 15, 2005)
TIMELINE FOR HARRIET CHAMBERS ADAMS
Link: https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n92122677/
1. From the North to the South : some sights I have seen in South America, August 1905-May 1906
Authors:Harriet Chalmers Adams (Photographer), Franklin Pierce Adams, Max T. Vargas (Photographer)¹
END
.jpg)
Maxamillia T. Vargas%20(1).jpg)
Harry Grant Olds (American)
.jpeg)
 |
| SOURCE: https://writingroughshod.com/2016/10/12/a-unique-lens-on-wwi-the-photography-of-harriet-chalmers-adams/ Original Source: Kathryn M. Davis, The Forgotten Life of Harriet Chalmers Adams: Geographer, Explorer, Feminist. M.A. Thesis, San Francisco State University, History, 1995. 2009. https://scholarworks.csun.edu/handle/10211.2/2790?show=full |
Kathryn M. Davis, The Forgotten Life of Harriet Chalmers Adams: Geographer, Explorer, Feminist. M.A. Thesis, San Francisco State University, History, 1995. 2009.
https://scholarworks.csun.edu/handle/10211.2/2790?show=full
From Wikipedia:
Footnote:
- ¹Max (Maximiliano) T. Vargas (1874–1959), born in Arequipa, Peru, began his carrier as a professional photographer in 1896. Vargas went to the Bolivian highlands to photograph people, landscapes, and archaeological sites. He worked in the city of La Paz before the end of the nineteenth century and created editions of postcards that bear the inscription: Edicion propria de Max T. Vargas ("own edition of Max T. Vargas"), Arequipa & La Paz. Because of these postcards, Vargas is considered the initiator of documentary photography in Peru and Bolivia. His postcards were printed in Germany. Source; Dumbarton Oakes https://www.doaks.org/research/library-archives/dumbarton-oaks-archives/collections/ephemera/names/max-t-vargas
- F. Weiss, Buenos Aires, Argentina IMPR. F. WEISS CALLE CHILE 1360 Weiss was one of the important postcard publishers of Buenos Aires who published photographs by leading photographer H. G. Olds (qv). Undivided-back cards were also published by J. Weiss & Cia from the same address, 1360 Calle Chile, Buenos Aires. In 1911 Printing Weiss and Preusche published the 3rd. Edition of The Puntan Tradition by J. W. Gez. In 1918 J. Weiss y Preusche published Statutes of the German School Association Quilmes, a city in the Buenos Aires region. In 1914 the Typographic Establishment of J. Weiss & Preusche published Archive of the Argentine Nation: Documents referring to the War of Independence. In 1916 they were at 249 Calle Patricios. As of 4 October 1918, the company was added to the Enemy Trading List by The Panama Canal, Executive Department, Division of Civil Affairs, Balboa Heights, Canal Zone. Sources: H. G. Olds. News of an unknown Abel Alexander y Luis Priamo (Translated into English by Leigh Fisher); Panama Canal Record.
NOTES
Along the Old Inca Highway, Harriet Chalmers Adams, National Geographic Magazine, April, 1908.
The temple of Wiracocha is part of a larger archaeological complex called "Raqchi" This archaeological complex is located around 3 hours from Cusco, near the main route to Puno and Lake Titicaca. It is 3,460m above sea level on the slopes of the volcano "Quimsachata".
END
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some Wonderful Sights Along in the Andean Highlands, Harriet Chalmers Adams, National Geographic Society, September 1908.
END
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kaleidoscope LaPaz: The City of the Clouds, Harriet Chalmers Adams, National Geographic Society, February 1909.
For over 150 years archaeologists have theorized as to why the expansive religious complex at the ancient city of Tiahuanacu (Tiwanaku) in modern day Bolivia was located in such a desolate, arid and resourceless region about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the shores of Lake Titicaca. This article provides new observations pertaining to the territorial planning, orientations and alignments of the monumental platforms and semi-sunken temples, presenting a hitherto uncharted prime meridian, or “mountain-axis,” used by the indigenous architects, builders and priests.
 |
| Flamingos can be found at Bolivia's Altiplano by Lake Titicaca. |
South American Photographers
.jpg)
%20(1).jpg)
Martin Chambi popularized a technique for portrait photography. He posed candidates framed by an open door or window frame giving the portrait instant interest and depth and cultural identity.
Martin Chambi at Macchu Picchu, which was ‘re-discovered’ (and plundered) in the 1860s/70s, after laying hidden for nearly 300 years. The Spanish never found it, so unlike most Inca cities, it remained unmolested. Martin Chambi
The lenses used in Chambi’s large-format bellows cameras of the 1920s and ‘30s were already antiques, and the softness of the images they produce is more visually akin to the work of Edward Curtiss than August Sander. Curtiss was an outsider looking in on Native American culture in the early 1900s, and August Sander (working in the late 1920s/30s) was a peer of the Germans he famously photographed in their working attire, while Chambi was the Native American insider looking deeper inside his own culture, with a warm and loving eye that eluded both his obvious photographic parallels. But Chambi had a poet’s eye, and his images are imbued with mystery and depth, suggesting a world we cannot know but will be endlessly fascinated watching.
SOURCE: https://thevintagent.com/2019/09/04/martin-chambi-i-am-not-hispanic-i-am-pre-hispanic/
.jpeg)
Emilio Diaz
It is a set of unpublished images by the Arequipa portraitist Emilio Díaz, whose photographic archive is lost. Díaz, born in 1870, was a photographer and painter and early received important international recognition when he was awarded a copper medal at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1900 for his portrait work. In his portraits, the combination of the pose, the handling of the intense Arequipa light in the studio, the grooming and attire of the model, and the backdrop, which in many cases was painted by Díaz himself, are crucial. The set consists of 28 silver bromide gelatin glass plates whose images represent a series of ladies of the Arequipa bourgeoisie from the period 1900-1914.
Sources: https://www.centrodelaimagen.edu.pe/content/emilio-diaz
https://www.udep.edu.pe/hoy/2013/11/docente-restaura-negativos-ineditos-del-reconocido-fotografo-peruano-emilio-diaz/
From the 1890s to the 1920s rubber from the Peruvian jungle was in high demand, it was used to produce tires for automobiles, waterproof shoes and clothes.
W.T. Burres
Photographic Archive of a Californian Adventurer and Doctor in South America by W.T. Burres - 1903-18
Photographic Archive of a Californian Adventurer and Doctor in South America by W.T. Burres - 1903-18
by W.T. Burres
Photographic Archive of a Californian Adventurer and Doctor in South America by W.T. Burres - 1903-18
Photographic Archive of a Californian Adventurer and Doctor in South America
BY W.T. BURRES
Silver print, cyanotypes, and printing-out-paper prints (167)
From 4 x 3 inches to 8 x 10 inches, about half 3 x 5 1/2 inches
Some with the photographer's hand-stamp or credit in pencil, and others with manuscript notations verso.
Rich and extensive photographic archive of Walton T. Burres of Stockton, CA, showing his time in Peru, c. 1904, as an amateur explorer and doctor for the Inca Mining and Rubber Company, and his later work in Panama, c. 1918, with the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Division.
W.T. Burres was educated at California's Cooper Medical College, the first school of medicine on the West Coast, and was a prominent member of the Stockton community before sojourning to Peru around 1900 to help the Inca Mining and Rubber Company address the deadly diseases endemic to the region like malaria and yellow fever. To encourage economic infrastructure in remote areas, the Peruvian government began granting land concessions to any company that would build roads, bridges, or river ports. As a result, the Inca Mining Company, an American outfit based in Tirapata, purchased the rights to mine gold along the upper Inambari River in 1896, and soon became the richest gold producer in Peru.
A large portion of Burres's Peruvian images document his 1904 excursion from Arequipa 150 miles into "rubber country." This journey was well-recounted in U.S. papers, and a number of the anecdotes described in print are seen in the present images. There are many dynamic views of Burres and his party trekking through the dense jungle, summiting the high mountains, as well as shots of flaura, fauna, and native Peruvians. Burres's travel companions for this trip included the famed adventurer Harriet Chalmers Adams (later dubbed "America's greatest woman explorer" by the New York Times). Adams and her husband Frank, both Stocktonians themselves, joined up with Burres during their own multi-year expedition through South America, and included in the collection are four presumably unknown images of Adams, which show her bravely suspended on a cable used to cross the West River, traveling through the rough terrain on horseback, and proudly displaying a large monkey in one hand and, in the other, the large rifle that was used to dispatch it. There are also a few photos of a similar excursion Burres took one year previous, including a view along Tambopata river and a scene of Burres in front of his tent alongside Harvard Astronomy Professor Solon Bailey.
Solon Irving Bailey was an American astronomer and discoverer of the main-belt asteroid 504 Cora, on June 30, 1902. Bailey joined the staff of Harvard College Observatory in 1887. He received an M.A. from there in 1888 in addition to his previous M.A. from Boston
Other Peruvian material includes numerous views of Cusco, Arequipa, and the surrounding environs, including a beautiful interior of a chapel, a Martin Chambi-esque detail shot of a stone wall, portraits of local townspeople, some identified as Quechua people. There are a number of lush, large-format cyanotypes. These were printed on Inca Mining Company surplus stationary, which speaks to the makeshift nature of photo-development under Burres's circumstances. One particularly striking image shows the top of Misti volcano barely visible above the clouds.
The photographs from Burres's time in Panama document his more serious work as a virologist and health administrator in the area. One interesting photo shows a pair of recently-shot iguanas with a caption notating, "blood of these reptiles found infected with Haemogregarina." Another image is that of a new style of privy, built from concrete and wire-mesh, designed to better keep out rain water. There are also keenly-shot views of main streets and local culture in Los Santos, Chiriquí and elsewhere, including a number of humanistic group portraits taken at a girl's school.
A number of the images from Burres's time in Peru were printed in a 1904 publication produced by Peru's official council for waterways. But his photographic output is quite scarce, likely due to the fact that, according to a 1906 article published after his to the US, he dropped much of his work into a stream while attempting to ford it.
W. (Walton) T. (Todd) Burres Peru Waterways, 1904
Walton T. Burres of 826 East Fourth Street, Stockton, California
Source:https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/1790873.html).
Marine physician
Served in Panama Canal Zone as the Director in Panama on behalf of International Health Board for the Rockefeller Foundation.
Brother. BEN O. Burres. Marine engineer
Mother. Harriet Burres 257 20th St. San Francisco. CA., Father's, Benedict O'Neal
The 20th century began with an important institutional development in Peru's irrigation sector with the creation of the Mining and Water Engineering Body (1904) and the Hydrological Service (1911). However, it was not until the 1920s that the first large-scale State irrigation projects were launched. Public investment in irrigation in 1905 accounted for 8.7% of the total, reaching 18.62% in 1912, a trend that continued in the 1920s and 1930s. Source: Wikipedia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BEST PRACTICES: GLASS NEGATIVES
I. HANDLING, CLEANING, STORING
Best Practices Glass Plate Negatives: Handling, Cleaning, Storing/ National Archives https://www.archives.gov/preservation/storage/glass-plate-negatives.html
Best Practices Glass Plate Negatives: Handling, Cleaning, Storing/ https://youtu.be/ThsnF03QDt8
National Museum of Australia. https://youtu.be/XPSb-54RkIkNational Museum of Australia. https://youtu.be/XPSb-54RkIk
II. REPAIR
BEST PRACTICES GLASS PLATE NEGATIVES: Repairing broken Glass Plate Negatives Harvard
https://youtu.be/Uh_J-6XIjyg
III. TRANSPORTING
IV. DIGITIZING
Best Practices Glass Plate Negatives: Digitizing Tasmania Library
https://youtu.be/d8S0oMhIcRQ
V. SUPPLIES
VI. CONVERTING BLACK AND WHITE TO COLOR
VII. PRINTING
Chicago Albumen Works PO Box 805 174 Front Street Housatonic, MA 01236
https://youtube.com/@BorutPeterlinPhotography
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
¹Album of 257 gelatin silver prints of a journey from Panama to Bolivia in Aug. 1905-May 1906, University of California, Los Angeles. Worldcat Summary: "The album, probably compiled by Harriet Chalmers Adams, traces a journey she and her husband Franklin Adams, an electrical engineer from Stockton, California, made from Panama to Peru, and across the Andes. Harriet and Frank traveled through South America between 1904 and 1906, in part due to Frank's employment as an inspector for the Inca Mining Company, but also due to the couple's passion for travel and adventure. They were avid photographers, and with all the photographic equipment they carried with them on their travels, they took hundreds of photographs. The album opens as the couple arrives in Panama, with views of Panama City, including the offices of the Panama Railroad Company, and smaller Canal Zone towns such as Culebra and Empire. They continue their journey from Panama, stopping in Ecuador, down the coast of Peru aboard the steamer the SS Guatemala, finally arriving at the port of Mollendo, where connections are made for the train to the interior city of Arequipa. Photos document their trip to Arequipa, and its scenic and cultural sites, religious and colonial architecture, bull fighters, and the "El Misti" volcano. Nine of the photographs are credited to the commercial photographer Max T. Vargas, and about 25 to 30 other prints in the album are probably by him as well. Vargas (no relation to the Vargas brothers photographers, Carlos and Miguel), operated a photography studio in Arequipa in the early 20th century; included here is an Arequipa streetscape, in which a large sign identifies the building as the studio of Max T. Vargas. Harriet and Frank continue their journey from Arequipa by train, Ferrocarril del Sur, to the 13,000 foot high altiplano of Peru, recording the dry and barren landscape, and scenes of Andean people in indigenous dress selling goods in the market, with their donkeys and alpacas, weaving textiles on hand looms, waiting at train stations. Included are photos of the interior of a railroad office, sections of track, railroad bridges, railroad cars, and stations. The subsequent descent to the jungle on horseback is documented by photographs of the arduous terrain, rope bridges (the 300-foot Inambari Bridge?), river travel, waterfalls and indigenous people and thatch roofed huts. Their destination is the headquarters in Tirapata of the Inca Mining Company, purchased by Wallace L. Hardison of Los Angeles in 1895, and managed by his nephew, Chester W. Brown of Santa Paula, California. Photos show a cluster of buildings of offices and residences, the company's well-provisioned general store, and the managers and their workers. Further on, past Crucero and Limbini, is Santo Domingo (some 150 miles from Tirapata) where the gold is mined; there are photos of mine tunnels, miners pushing carts of ore, workers with shovels. There were also a blacksmith and carpenter shop, sawmill, and cyanide house with refining vats at the mine. In two photos, stacks of gold bars stamped with the Inca Mining Co. label, support several pistols, a reminder of the dangers the company messengers and guards face as they transport the gold back to Tirapata. Trains of mules haul supplies back and forth between Tirapata and Santo Domingo. The company introduced carriages to Tirapata when they brought in a two-seated carriage and a heavy Studebaker wagon, both pictured in the album. The Inca Mining Company was also involved in extracting rubber from an unexplored area of Peru adjacent to Bolivia, on lands near the Madre de Dios rivers. To reach this region, the travelers use foot bridges, native canoes or pirogues, zipline, and river steamer. Several photos portray the Indians of this region, known as "Chunchos:" a man in a tunic, holding long bows, and groups of young women with their babies. In Cuzco, the photographer captures the colonial beauty of the Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, and the courtyards of the Convento de Santo Domingo, and Convento de la Merced. In the Plaza de Armas, Peruvians parade through the streets carrying floats and statues of the Virgin and saints, and a tall structure made of poles lashed together, decorated with flags and figures in white robes on each of the four corners. The photos also capture the beauty of the enormous Inca stone walls of Cuzco, the reed boats of the Uro Indians of Lake Titicaca, and the nearby ruins of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia. Many of the photos of Tiahuanaco's impressive sculpted stonework are by Vargas. The last 11 prints in the album are photographic reproductions of scenes of Jamaica, including several large grand hotels in Kingston, and Port Antonio, Roaring River Falls in St. Ann, and a country railroad station in Troja."
²
³Harris & Ewing Photographic Studio is an historic structure located in downtown Washington, D.C. It was built in 1924 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
The building housed Harris & Ewing, which in the early 20th century was the largest news photo service in the United States.[2] They also served as the official White House photographer and the city's most noted portrait photographers from 1905 to 1955.[2] This building with its Italian Renaissance Revival limestone façade replaced an earlier building built by Harris & Ewing in 1905. It was designed by the architectural firm of Sonnemann & Justement.[2]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Garay Albújar, Andrés. Photography: Max T. Vargas, Arequipa and La Paz . University of Piura. 2015.
Garay Albújar, Andrés. Cusco revealed: Photographs by Max T. Vargas, Max Uhle and Martín Chambi. University of Piura and Ibero-Amerikaniches Institut. 2017.
Villacorta Chávez, Jorge. How to become a great Andean photographer without an archive in history? In: Photo. UPC Magazines. No. 4. September 2020. Vol. 3. pp. 10-17.
https://www.joyvspicer.com/joy-blog/2020/2/7/harriet-chalmers-adams-trblazing-explorer
Comments
Post a Comment