H. G. Olds, Views of Buenos Aires and the countryside of Argentina, 1900-1927

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Summary

Creators:
Olds, H. G. ((Harry Grant)), 1869-1943
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.
Extent:
1 Linear Feet (24 photographs in 1 album)
Language:
Collection material is in Spanish; Castilian .

Background

Scope and content:

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 Hist贸rico Nacional del Cabildo y la Revoluci贸n 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 espa帽oles; 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.

Arrangement

Arranged in a single series: Series I., H. G. Olds, Views of Buenos Aires and the countryside of Argentina, 1900-1927.

Biographical / historical:

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 Valpara铆so, 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 Ilustraci贸n Sudamericana and Caras y Careta. An early article, "Among the Toba Indians: Photographic Exploration of Mr. Henry G. Olds for La Ilustraci贸n 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, Am茅rica 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 Rep煤blica 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 fianc茅e, 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. Fotograf铆as 1900-1943: Un norteamericano retrata la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de la Antorcha, 2011.

Priamo, Luis et al. H. G. Olds: Fotografi虂as, 1900-1943. Buenos Aires: Fundac贸in 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.

Acquisition information:
Acquired in 2022.
Physical location:
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Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
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