Rene D'Harnoncourt Photograph Collection
Scope and Contents
Photographs and postcards collected in Mexico during the early twentieth century. One hundred twenty-four were ma-1901-1907 by photographer C. B. Waite. The others are undated; some were made by a photographer with the surname of Scott, a few were copyrighted by the Sonora News Company, and most of the remainder are unattributed. Images consist of commercial travel views of street scenes, architecture, and picturesque, in situ and studio portraits of native residents of Mexico, many from the series, “Views of Mexico,” by C.B. Waite; and snapshots of similar subjects. A few photographs were taken in Guatemala but locations are not well identified. Mexican locales represented in the photographs include Mexico City, Tehuantepec, and Uruapan, among others; some locations are unidentified. Many of the prints are gelatino-chloride and silver gelatin snapshots.
Dates
- Creation: 1900-1925
Language of Materials
English
Access Restrictions
Unrestricted.
Use Restrictions
Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Digital images included in this on-line finding aid are property of the Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries. Please contact the Benson for information about reproducing or redistributing these images.
Biographical Sketch
Rene D'Harnoncourt was a museum director and authority on American Indian and Mexican arts and crafts. Born 1901 in Vienna, Austria; died 1968 in Long Island, New York. D'Harnoncourt lived in Mexico from 1925 to 1933 and worked as an artist before joining a Mexico City antiques firm in 1927.
D'Harnoncourt compiled and lectured on a collection of folk art for the Mexican Ministry of Education (1929) and was chosen to prepare an exhibition of Mexican fine and applied arts for display in the U.S. After its opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1930, D'Harnoncourt toured with the exhibition for two years.
D'Harnoncourt moved permanently to the U.S. in 1933. He directed the radio program, "Art in America"; taught art history at Sarah Lawrence College (1934-1937); and began working for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior in 1936, becoming general manager in 1937 and chairman of the board in 1944. He joined the staff of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1944 and was its director from 1949 until July 1968.
Full Extent
218 photographs, (64 postcards)
Abstract
Photographs (by C.B. Waite, 1901-1907, and others) and postcards collected in Mexico during the early twentieth century.
Organization
Organized into three series: I. Photographs by C. B. Waite. II. Assorted photographs. III. Postcards.
Arrangement
Arranged numerically within subseries and folders.
Acquisitions Information
The René D'Harnoncourt Photograph Collection was donated 1971-1974 to the Benson Latin American Collection by his daughter, Anne D'Harnoncourt.
Processing Information
The collection was described by the Benson's Mexican Archives Project in August 1994.
Prepared by the Mexican Archives Project Jaunary 5, 1995.
- Title
- Rene D'Harnoncourt Photograph Collection
- Status
- Edited Partial Draft
- Author
- Finding aid written by the 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
- August 15, 2002: Edited with XMetaL3 by Bob Stewart according to instructions in Editing TARO EAD XML Finding Aids with XMetaL.
- Tue Jul 22 14:57:52 CDT 2003: urn:taro:utexas.blac.00016 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (20030505).
- 25 April 2005: Finding aid reformated by Christian Kelleher to meet RLG guidelines.
- 21 June 2005: C.B. Waite photographs scanned and text edited by Aggie McAlester.
- 2020 March: Date normalization by Janette Nunez.
- 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
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578
bensonspecialcollections@austin.utexas.edu