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John McAndrew Photograph Collection

 Collection
Identifier: 31795823

Scope and Contents

Photographic prints and negatives, postcards, drawings, and a few newspaper clippings. Photographic images of art and architecture include general and detailed views of cathedrals, churches, and monasteries in Mexico, primarily from the 16th century, as well as other colonial structures in Mexico such as palaces, aqueducts, bridges, gates, fountains, and houses. Also represented are Mexican plants, scenery, and pre-Columbian ruins. Coverage is concentrated on the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Tlaxcala, and Yucatán, and on Mexico City. Scenes of Brazil portray farms, scenery, modern and colonial architecture (mostly churches), and people engaged in various activities; images of Guatemala depict colonial architecture. Also included in the collection are 75 ink drawings on onion skin tracing paper of plans, perspectives, and architectural details of Mexican colonial buildings; newspaper clippings (1943-1945) relating to colonial architecture in Mexico; and a few photographs of Machu Picchu, Perú.

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1930-circa 1965

Language of Materials

English

Access Restrictions

Unrestricted.

Use Restrictions

Standard copyright restrictions apply.

Biographical Note

Professor of art and architecture. Born 1904 in New York, NY; died 1978 in Venice, Italy. Graduated from Harvard University in 1924, received a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard in 1940, and studied architecture in Europe and Mexico. Positions held: instructor at Vassar College; professor at Wellesley College; curator of the Department of Architecture and Industrial Art at the New York Museum of Modern Art; coordinator of inter-American affairs in Mexico during World War II; director of Wellesley College art museum. Founded Save Venice Inc. in 1970 and was its chairman at the time of his death. Author of The open air churches of sixteenth-century Mexico.

Full Extent

7 linear ft. (9,800)

Abstract

Photographs, primarily of art and colonial architecture in Mexico, Brazil and Guatemala.

Arrangement

Arranged in three subgroups by country (Mexico, Brazil and Peru, Guatemala) and thereunder into series by format or subject. The Mexican materials are arranged alphabetically by state within series.

Other Finding Aids

A container list and a partial card file for the collection are available in the Benson library, as is a partial list of the items in the series, “Scenes of Brazil.”

Acquisition Information

The John McAndrew Photograph Collection was given by Mr. McAndrew to the University Art Museum in 1968 and 1969. It was transferred to the Benson Latin American Collection in 1981.

Bibliography

McAndrew's publication, The open-air churches of sixteenth-century Mexico: atrios, posas, open chapels, and other studies, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1965, was based upon the collection.
  • The open-air churches of sixteenth-century Mexico: atrios, posas, open chapels, and other studies, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1965,

Extent:

genreform: photographic prints and negatives

Extent:

75

Extent:

genreform: drawings

Processing Information

The collection was processed and described by the Benson's Mexican Archives Project in August 1994.

Finding aid initially prepared by the Mexican Archives Project, November 1994.

Title
John McAndrew:
Status
Edited Full Draft
Subtitle
An Inventory of the Photograph Collection at the Benson Latin American Collection
Author
Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection
Date
2001
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Revision Statements

  • February 13, 2003: Edited with XMetal3 by Bob Stewart following TARO EAD V.1 Editing for BLAC Finding Aids.
  • Tue Jul 22 14:58:28 CDT 2003: urn:taro:utexas.blac.00045 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (20030505).
  • 2020 April: Special characters added by Julia Davila Coppedge.
  • 2021 April: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez to fix compliance check errors to prepare for the migration to new TARO website.
  • 2021 November: Edited by Devon Murphy to update control access terms and formatting based on the TARO Control Access List.
  • 2025 July: Revised by Ryan Sullivant to fix validation errors prior to ingestion into ArchivesSpace.

Repository Details

Part of the Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Repository

Contact:
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578