Scope and Content of Collection

The collection comprises of formal studio portraits, mainly of middle and upper class Limeños. Formats include wet collodion, gelatin silver, and black & white glass negatives; duplicate gelatin silver film negatives; and gelatin silver prints. Among the 116 glass plate negatives the following photography studios can be identified: Barraza (1); Rafael Castillo (27); Correa (3); Courret Hermanos (2); La Torre (1); Ugarte (21). Included are individual and family portraits; portraits of babies, children, and young boys in military uniform; young women; young men; married couples; children in carnival costumes; and soldiers and officers. The portraits depict people of various races and ethnicities including Black Peruvians and Chinese immigrants.

Sixty-one images taken between the 1860s and the 1920s are from unidentified studios. This group also includes several occupational portraits of rabanas (female camp followers), nuns, mercachifles (street vendors), musicians, and mendicants. There are also views of Lima and environs (the Plaza de Armas; the fashionable neighborhood of Rimac; the port of Callao). Street scenes and public gatherings include a procession of the Señor de los Milagros, and a military procession.

The collection also contains 46 modern prints made from glass plate negatives not in the collection, and two made from plates in the collection. The sitters in these images are unidentified; the types of sitters represented are similar to those mentioned above.

Arrangement

Arranged in two series: ; .
Series I. Glass negatives
Series II. Prints from negatives not in the collection