Guide to the Estate of Carl Mydans Photography Collection

Mattie Taormina

Department of Special Collections

Green Library

Stanford University Libraries

Stanford, CA 94305-6004

Phone: (650) 725-1022

Email: speccollref@stanford.edu

URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/

Guide to the Estate of Carl Mydans Photography Collection

Collection number: MSS PHOTO 243

Department of Special Collections and University Archives

Stanford University Libraries

Stanford, California

Processed by:: Mattie Taormina
Date Completed:: July, 2007
Encoded by:: Bill O'Hanlon

Descriptive Summary

Title: Estate of Carl Mydans Photography collection

Dates: 1935-1968

Collection number: MSS PHOTO 243

Creator: Mydans, Carl

Collection Size: 2 linear feet (3 flat boxes)

Repository: Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.

Abstract: The collection consists of photographs Carl Mydans created while working for Life and Time magazines. The collection is arranged alphabetically by the location where the photographs were taken. Exceptions are the folders of General Douglas MacArthur photographs (Box 3 Folder 1) and the portraits of political leaders of various countries (Box 2 Folders 5-6) Original image identification letter and number given to each photograph by Mydans have been retained, as has the original title of photograph when given. Folder headings were created by combining information on the back of the photograph with an inventory created by the Mydans estate. When a date is noted on the photograph, it has been included in this guide.

Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

Access

Collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least 24 hours in advance of intended use.

Publication Rights

Copyright in the photographs created by Carl Mydans is held by Time Inc./Life Magazine. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the Head of Special Collections before publishing quotations or duplicating images from materials in the collection.

Preferred Citation

Estate of Carl Mydans Photography collection, MSS PHOTO 243. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Acquisition Information

Accession number: 2005-126 After the death of Carl Mydans his estate divided his photographs among several research institutions and museums. These institutions include Yale University, Duke University, The Harry Ransom Center, Library of Congress, and J. Paul Getty Museum of Art, etc.

The part of the collection that Carl Mydans' daughter, Shelley Mydans Griffing donated to Stanford University in June 2005, contains 89 photographs.

Biography / Administrative History

A graduate of Boston University's school of journalism, Carl Mydans joined Life Magazine as a staff photographer in 1936. His work over the years sent him overseas where he covered events in Britain, Sweden, Finland, Italy, France, China, and the Philippines. In 1941, the Japanese captured and held Carl and his wife, Shelley, in Manila for almost one year and then transferred them to Shanghai, China. They finally returned home in 1943 after being repatriated in a prisoner-of-war exchange. After his capture and release, Mydans covered the war in Europe, specifically the battles of Italy at Cassino, Rome and Florence and the American-Free French invasion of southern France in August, 1944. The following year saw him back in the Philippines covering General MacArthur's landing, and in 1948, he covered the earthquake in Fukui, Japan. Mydans would photograph General MacArthur's forces again during the Korean War. The photographs Mydans took from this time earned him U.S. Camera Magazine's Gold Achievement Award. Carl Mydans died on August 16, 2004 at his home in Larchmont, New York. His wife, whom he married in 1938, died in 2002.

Scope and Content of Collection

The collection consists of photographs Carl Mydans created while working for Life and Time magazines. The collection is arranged alphabetically by the location where the photographs were taken. Exceptions are the folders of General Douglas MacArthur photographs (Box 3 Folder 1) and the portraits of political leaders of various countries (Box 2 Folders 5-6) Original image identification letter and number given to each photograph by Mydans have been retained, as has the original title of photograph when given. Folder headings were created by combining information on the back of the photograph with an inventory created by the Mydans estate. When a date is noted on the photograph, it has been included in this guide.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Chiang, Kai-shek,|d1887-1975|xPhotograph.

Chou, En-lai,|d1898-1976|xPhotograph.|?UNAUTHORIZED

Churchill, Winston,|cSir,|d1874-1965|xPhotograph.

De Valera, Eamonn,|d1882-1975|xPhotograph.

Gandhi, Indira,|d1917-1942|xPhotograph.|?UNAUTHORIZED

Gable, Clark,|d1901-1960|xPhotograph.

Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich,|d1894-1971|xPhotograph.

Lombard, Carole,|d1908-1942|xPhotograph.

MacArthur, Douglas,|d1880-1964|xPhotograph.

Mann, Thomas,|d1875-1955|xPhotograph.

Minami,|eGeneral|xPhotograph.

600Mossadegh, Mohammed|xPhotograph.

Mydans, Carl|xPhotograph.

Mydans, Shelley Smith|xPhotograph.

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich,|d1899-1977|xPhotograph.

Nehru, Jawaharlal,|d1889-1964|xPhotograph.

Pound, Ezra,|d1885-1972|xPhotograph.

Photography, Artistic.

Photojournalism.

War correspondents, American|xPhotographs.|?UNAUTHORIZED

Flat Box 1, Folder 1

Cambodia

Scope and Content Note

Tree roots that have grown over doorway, n.d. (AK4)

Two people sitting on a large tree root, n.d.(AK5)

Ankor Wat, 1950: two people walking out of temple. (AK7)

Ankor Wat, 1950: man walking in ruins. (AK8)

Flat Box 1, Folder 2

China, 1941

Scope and Content Note

Village Main Street-Lung Chuan-I. (CH60)

China Hat Seller Lung Chuan-I. (CH57)

Village Street with Temple Bell Lung Chuan-I. (CH45)

Three amazed men at village table at Lung Chuan-I: foreign Devils, especially with cameras, are objects of suspicion to Chinese villagers in Szechwan. (CH36)

Yellow River Fort Siam region. (CH17)

Chungking: Generalissimo Chaing Kai-shek and Madame Chaing using ivory chopsticks. (CH6)

Tea room scene Lung Chuan-I. (CH040)

Flat Box 1, Folder 3

China

Scope and Content Note

Japanese prisoners of war in China, 1941. (CH225)

China war, 1949: after the war between the Nationalists and Communists, I passed through a village near Pengpu. I found only this old woman mourning in the ruins. (CH240)

Japanese bombing of Chungking, China, 1941. (CH303)

Chungking, 1941: conscripts of the Chinese National Army walk through Chungking on a labor detail. (CH304)

Chungking, 1941: exhausted Chinese laborers sleep in a teahouse. (CH307)

Hong Kong Shanghai, n.d: junk boat at dock. (SH11)

Hong Kong Shanghai, n.d: woman standing on junk boat. (SH12)

Shanghai, n.d: people on junk boat. (SH10)

Flat Box 1, Folder 4

Egypt, 1953

Scope and Content Note

Egypt-Desert: two camels walking through vast desert. (VA14)

British in Egypt. (VA18)

Flat Box 1, Folder 5

England

Scope and Content Note

Working in the 18" seam British coal miners, 1952. (B53)

Coal miners in Britain, 1952. (B99)

Rector church at Warleggan, England, 1943. (B92)

Princess Margaret arrives in London, 1955. (B091)

Coal miners at pub, 1952. (B098)

Flat Box 1, Folder 6

France

Scope and Content Note

Collaborationist, Marseille, France, August 1944. (F14)

Near Verdun after German breakthrough at Sedare, May 1940. (F03)

With French tank brigade near Verdun after German breakthrough at Sedare, June 1940. (F06)

Flat Box 1, Folder 7

Germany

Scope and Content Note

Lindberg, Germany, 1954: woman planting potatoes in field. (G151)

Flat Box 2, Folder 1

Italy, 1940

Scope and Content Note

Minister's meeting, Rome, Fascist Italy, June. (I32)

Fascist Italy-Rome, June. (I22)

Flat Box 2, Folder 2

Japan

Scope and Content Note

Earthquake, Fukui, Japan, 1948: a man carrying his dead wife whispers "too late" to his son, holding his mother's hand, won't hear. (J53)

Earthquake, Fukui, Japan, 1948: a fire raced through the ruins, survivors fled along streets that cracked open under their feet. (J54)

Japan, 1949: planes in formation. (J26)

Surrendering the sword to the 4 th U.S. Marines at the Kurihama Navel Base, Japan, 1945. (J15)

Mikomoto in Japan, September 1947. (J22)

Japan's first post-war vehicle, Hiroshima, 1947. (J29)

American rice at Kobe, Japan, 1949: unloading rice at Kobe provided by the U.S.-relief rice for starving Japan is unloaded from a ship in Kobe Harbor during the American Occupation. (J45)

Earthquake, Fukui, Japan, 1948. (J36)

Bucket carrier on the road from Kamakura to Kuginama, Sugamo Bay, August 29, 1949. (J24)

Flat Box 2, Folder 3

Korea

Scope and Content Note

Korean refugee mother and child in Korea fleeing from Seoul, 1951: a Korean mother carrying her baby and worldly goods flees the fighting around Seoul. (K12)

South Korea uprising, 1948: mutinous soldiers of the South Korean Army taken prisoner after the aborted uprising. (K4)

Flat Box 2, Folder 4

Philippines

Scope and Content Note

American and Filipino guerillas join forces in attack on Japanese, Northern Luzon, 1945. (PH25)

Fight for Manila, 1945: soldiers carrying bodies. (PH08)

Shelling of walled city, Manila, 1945. (PH16)

Filipino scouts on way to Sunday mass, Manila, 1941 with Shelley. (Shelley Mydans)(PH18)

Street fighting, Manila, 1945. (PH22)

Corregidor, 1941. (PH13)

Flat Box 2, Folder 5

Portraits

Scope and Content Note

Fascist propaganda minister of Rome Pavolini, 1940: under a portrait of Mussolini. (C46)

Eamon De Valera, President of Ireland, under a plaque of the martyred patriot Michael Collins, 1954. (C43)

Pandit Jawajarlal Nehru, 1956: India's first president. (C40)

Madame Indira Gandhi in Canada, 1956. (C39)

Vladimir Nabokov-in car, front view, n.d. (C52)

General Hidecki Tojo at his war crimes trial, 1947. (C50)

Chou En-Lai Chungking, 1941: glare airbrushed out. (CH002)

Vladimir Nabokov, novelist and lepidopterist, in Ithaca, New York, 1958. (C007)

General Minami, a defendant in the major war crimes trials in Tokyo, 1947 (J055)

Vietnam, 1968: Carl Mydans. (C056)

Flat Box 2, Folder 6

Portraits

Scope and Content Note

One hundred year old man, Siam area, China, n.d.: Kuo Tung, a coffin maker of Lanchow, China, was 130 years old in 1941. (C8)

German novelist Thomas Mann in his home in Princeton, New Jersey, February 1939. (C012)

Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Biggleswade, England, 1955. (C11)

Ezra Pound, in Milan, Italy, 1940. (C009)

Shelley Mydans at the typewriter by candlelight, n.d. (C055)

Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, premier of Iran, at his trial in Teheran, 1953. (C002)

Nikita Khrushchev denouncing President Eisenhower, Moscow, after the U-2 was shot down, n.d. (C013)

Flat Box 3, Folder 1

General Douglass MacArthur photographs

Scope and Content Note

Surrender on the Missouri, 1945: the Japanese surrender on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay-General Yoshijiro Umezu signs the surrender document while General MacArthur looks on. (J041)

General Douglas MacArthur lands in the Philippines at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon, January 9, 1945. (M01)

General Douglas MacArthur in his plane, "the Bataan," during the Korean War, 1950. (M19)

MacArthur standing with sunglasses smoking pipe, 1945. (M006)

Flat Box 3, Folder 2

Singapore, 1941

Scope and Content Note

Opium Den, Singapore. (S01): Singapore Opium Den. (S02)

Flat Box 3, Folder 3

Soviet Union, 1949

Scope and Content Note

Red Square, Moscow, 42nd Anniversary October Revolution, November 7. (R02)

Kremlin: moon behind. (R01)

Flat Box 3, Folder 4

Old age institution, 1959. (A5)

Flat Box 3, Folder 5

United States

Scope and Content Note

Sand hogs, New York, 1939: in a running game of "21" sand hogs gamble with their wages while waiting to go to work below the river. (P36)

Sand hogs working under the East River in New York City, 1939. (P033)

Migrant workers, Raymondsville, Texas, 1937: like this man whom I found living with his family by the side of the road. (P018)

A whiteface steer charging camera, Texas 1937 (P024)

A hundred feet below the East River in New York City, a sand hog calls out the number of inches of the "shove", n.d. (P037)

Transient cotton choppers in Crittenden County, Arkansas, 1936: on the road to find a better plantation. (P019)

Washington D. C. near Capital, September 1935. (P005)

Oil Boomtown, 1938: roustabouts in Freer, Texas take time off from their jobs. (P031)

Carol Lombard and Clark Gable at a movie preview, Hollywood 1936. (C010)

Oil Boomtown, 1937: Main Street in the oil boomtown of Freer, Texas. (P026)

Political Banners for the election in 1936 span a street in Hardwick, Vermont, 1936. (P003)

Batesville, Arkansas, 1936: the daily morning gathering at City Hall. (P013)

Mexican cattle entering Eagle Pass, Texas from International Bridge and Piedras Nedres, Mexico, March 8, 1937: a thousand white face cattle entering Eagle Pass, Texas after a 100 mile drive from Cohuila, Mexico. (P023)

Freer, Texas, Oil boomtown, 1937: Loungers hang around the Duval Club lunchroom. (P022)