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Olds. H. G., Views of Buenos Aires
2022.R.21
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Title: H. G. Olds, Views of Buenos Aires and the countryside of Argentina
Date (inclusive): 1900-1927
Number: 2022.R.21
Creator/Collector:
Olds, H. G. ((Harry Grant)), 1869-1943
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
(24 photographs in 1 album)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: An album of 24 photographs taken in
Argentina by American photographer H. G. Olds between 1900 and 1927. Views of the municipal
buildings and monuments of Buenos Aires comprise the bulk of the album. Images taken in the
countryside are also present.
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Language: Collection material is in
Spanish; Castilian .
Photographer H. G. (Harry Grant) Olds (1869-1943) was born in Sandusky County, Ohio. Around
1885 he got his start in photography as a photographer's apprentice at the Bishop Art
Gallery in Sandusky. In 1887, he spent some time in Palmyra, New York working for and
learning from photographer G. M. Elton, but by early 1888 he was back in Sandusky working at
A.C. Platt's photography gallery, then run by his son Clayton Winfield Platt who had
subsumed Bishop's business.
From 1894 to 1897, Olds was in business with Albert Willman. Olds & Willman had
portrait galleries in both Sandusky and Mansfield, Ohio. In 1887, Olds received a letter
from his uncle John B. Althorp, who was the Buenos Aires representative for Walter A. Wood,
a firm specializing in agricultural machinery, apprising him of a photography business
opportunity in Chile with a Mr. C. E. Spenser. Olds wound up his business in Ohio only to
have Spenser withdraw his offer. After making inquiries about other potential positions Olds
decided to proceed with his journey anyway, and he departed for South America in 1899,
working first in Valparaíso, Chile, at the portrait gallery of Obder W. Heffer, before
moving to Buenos Aires in the spring of 1900.
In Buenos Aires, Olds built up a substantial archive of the negatives he made on his
numerous trips and photo campaigns throughout the country. Rather than selling portraits to
a private clientele, and thereby competing with the established portrait photographers in
the city, Olds produced most of his work on commission or for the newly developing
commercial market which broadly encompassed institutional, documentary, and publicity
photography. Indeed, in the few advertisements Olds placed in the press he described himself
as, "H. G. Olds, North American Commercial Photographer." The opportunities in this
developing market were quite lucrative.
From 1901 to 1916, Olds was the official photographer for the Sociedad Rural Argentina and
its journal
Anales, and he was known for his studies of
pedigreed livestock and other animals found on Argentina's estancias. His work was also
published in the illustrated magazines
La Ilustración
Sudamericana
and
Caras y Careta. An early article,
"Among the Toba Indians: Photographic Exploration of Mr. Henry G. Olds for
La Ilustración Sudamericana among the Toba Indians of the Great
Argentine Chaco" (August 1901) is an example of the extensive photographic expeditions Olds
made throughout his career both on assignment and on speculation.
Olds's photographs were routinely reproduced as photomechanical postcards, which provided
another stream of income for him. In 1901 and 1902, his images formed the bulk of the first
two series of postcards published by Roberto Rosauer, who became the country's foremost
postcard publisher. Numerous postcard publishers such as Stephan Lumpert, Jacobo Preusser,
F. Weiss, Kirchoff & Cia, América Cristina, Pita & Catalano, and Mitchell also used
his images. His work also appeared in books such as Henry Stephens,
Illustrated Descriptive Argentina (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1917) and
Reginald Lloyd,
Impresiones de la República Argentina en el siglo XX:
su historia, gente, comercio, industria y riqueza
(London: Lloyd's Greater Britain
Publishing Company Ltd., 1911).
In 1902, Olds sent for his fiancée, Rebecca Jane Rank, and they were married once she
arrived in Buenos Aires. Olds lived in Buenos Aires for 43 years. He was active in the
city's North American expat community and was a founder of its American Club in 1917. After
a lengthy illness he died in Buenos Aires on 24 December 1943.
Sources consulted:
Priamo, Luis. "La Obra de H. G. Olds en la Argentina," Nuestro.cl.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120315055619/http://www.nuestro.cl/biblioteca/textos/harry6.htm.
Priamo, Luis et al.
Fotografías 1900-1943: Un norteamericano retrata
la Argentina
. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de la Antorcha, 2011.
Priamo, Luis et al.
H. G. Olds: Fotografías, 1900-1943.
Buenos Aires: Fundacóin Antorchas, 1998.
Schlechty, Jason. "Harry Grant Olds: From Mansfield to Buenos Aires," May 17, 2019, The
Sherman Room at MRCPL.
https://theshermanroom.wordpress.com/2019/05/17/harry-grant-olds-from-mansfield-to-buenos-aries.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
.
H. G. Olds, Views of Buenos Aires and the countryside of Argentina, 1900-1927, The Getty
Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2022.R.21.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2022r21
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 2022.
Beth Ann Guynn processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in 2022.
The collection was digitized by the repository and the images are available online:
Scope and Content of Collection
The album contains 24 gelatin silver photographs taken in Argentina by H. G. Olds between
1900 and 1927. Views of the municipal buildings and monuments of Buenos Aires comprise the
bulk of the album. Included are views of the Palacio de Congreso (inaugurated 1906); a view
of the Plaza Mayo showing construction work at the Museo Histórico Nacional del Cabildo y la
Revolución de Mayo; the Plaza Libertad; monuments such as the the Monumento de la Francia a
la Argentina in the Plaza Francia (dedicated 1910) and the Monumento a La Carta Magna y las
Cuatro Regiones Argentinas (Monumento de los españoles; unveiled 1927); and the rose garden
in the Bosques de Palermo. Also present are scenes depicting the city's docks, zoological
gardens, and boulevards. Images taken in the countryside, such as a view of gauchos at an
estancia; scenes of sheep and cows grazing; two views of the island town of El Tigre,
located north of Buenos Aires; and a study of a woman from the Gran Chaco, are also present.
An occupational portrait of a milkman standing in the street outside a city residence with
his milking cows provides a good example of the studies Olds made of Argentine "types" in
their natural environments, usually outdoors, that although posed have an aura of
authenticity lacking in the genre's typical portraits taken in the studio against a painted
backdrop or outdoors in a generic space such as in front of a nondescript wall.
The album is bound in dark green leatherette with "From My Camera" stamped in silver foil
on the front cover. The front paste-down bears a label for J. W. & Co., Ltd.'s "From My
Camera" series of slip-in photo albums which lists available album sizes. As Olds did not
offer photograph albums but rather sold individual unmounted prints, the presence of Olds's
photographs in an album meant for use by an amature photographer indicates that the
unidentified compiler of the album acquired Olds's photographs and housed them in a readily
available album.
The photographs bear Olds's wet stamp on their versos: H. G. Olds / Lavalle 1059 Buenos
Aires. Olds had his studio at 1059 Lavalle from approximately 1915 until 1937 when the
building and entire block it stood on was demolished. A three digit number is penciled in
the center of the verso of each photograph.
The photographs are captioned in the negative in Spanish, and these captions have been used
as the titles for the individual photographs. Image titles were devised by the archivist in
the cases were the caption is illegible or has been masked over.
Arranged in a single series: Series I., H. G. Olds, Views of Buenos Aires and the
countryside of Argentina, 1900-1927.
Indians of South America -- Argentina
-- Portraits
Monuments -- Argentina -- Buenos
Aires
Streets -- Argentina -- Buenos
Aires
Buenos Aires (Argentina) -- Description and travel
Photographs, Original
Photograph albums -- Argentina -- 20th century
Gelatin silver prints -- Argentina -- 20th century
Olds, H. G. ((Harry Grant)), 1869-1943