Finding Aid for the Lawrence Gustave Desmond Moses Mesoamerican Archive and
Research Project (MMARP) Photographs, 1982-2013, bulk 1982-1999
Beth Ann Guynn
Descriptive Summary
Title: Lawrence G. Desmond Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project (MMARP)
Photographs
Date (inclusive): 1982-2013
Number: 2014.R.16
Creator/Collector:
Desmond, Lawrence Gustave,
1935-
Physical Description:
9 Linear Feet
(6 boxes and 1 flatfile)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The collection comprises Lawrence G.
Desmond's photographic documentation of symposia organized by the Moses Mesoamerican Archive
and Research Project (MMARP) held between 1982 and 1999. Included are approximately 1,700
black-and-white and color slides and 179 gelatin silver prints including a panoramic print
of the 1989 symposium participants at the Templo Mayor Museum in Mexico City.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials
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Language: Collection material is in English.
Biographical/Historical Note
Archaeologist, author and photographer, Lawrence Gustave Desmond, was born in San Francisco
in 1935. His interest in photography began as a pre-teen growing up in the nearby small town
of San Carlos. After receiving a BA from the University of Santa Clara in 1957 Desmond saw
active duty as a Coast Guard officer from 1957 to 1960 and served in the coast Guard Reserve
through the 1960s, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He completed an MBA at San
Jose State in 1964 and went on to a career in human resources and management development
with Silicon Valley electronic manufacturing companies. During this period Desmond developed
an interest in Mesoamerican archaeology to the extent that he left his business career to
pursue studies first at the Universidad de Las Americas in Cholula, México, where he
received an MA in cultural anthropology in 1979, and then at the University of Colorado,
Boulder where he was awarded a PhD in anthropology and archeology in 1983. It was during his
time at Boulder that he first became involved with the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and
Research Project (MMARP) for which he ultimately became its unofficial photographer.
Desmond has carried out archaeological research in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras for more
than forty years. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and San Francisco State
University and has published numerous articles about his archaeological and heritage
preservation projects including geophysical and photogrammetric surveys at the Yucatán sites
of Uxmal and Chichén Itzá. His work of 30 years researching the lives and work of Augustus
and Alice Le Plongeon, who lived and traveled throughout Yucatán for ten years in the late
19th century, is the subject of his PhD dissertation and two books,
A
Dream of Maya: Augustus and Alice Le Plongeon in Nineteenth-century Yucatán
, with
Phyllis Messenger (1988) and
Yucatán Through Her Eyes: Alice Dixon Le
Plongeon, Writer & Expeditionary Photographer
(2009).
Desmond is currently a senior research fellow in archaeology with the Moses Mesoamerican
Archive and Research Project at Harvard University and a research associate with the
Department of anthropology at the California Academy of Science in San Francisco. His blog
ArcheoPlanet covers topics in archeology: http://archaeoplanet.wordpress.com. Most recently
Desmond has published a series of books documenting his life-long avocation of photography
on the on-line platform Blurb, with titles ranging from
Growing Up in
California, 1947-1959: Toy Racers and Giant Salamanders
to
Mexico as It was. Life in the 1970s.
Administrative Information
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Lawrence Gustave Desmond Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project (MMARP) photographs,
1982-1994, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2014.R.16.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2014r16
Acquisition Information
Gift of Lawrence G. Desmond. Acquired in 2014.
Processing History
The collection was processed by Lilly Tsukahira and Beth Ann Guynn in 2014; Guynn wrote the
finding aid.
Related Archival Materials
Desmond's photographs of Mexico are held by the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection comprises Lawrence Desmond's photographic documentation of symposia
organized by the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project (MMARP) held between 1982
and 1999 at the University of Colorado-Boulder; the Museo Templo Mayor, Mexico City; and
Princeton University. Included in the collection are approximately 1,700 black-and-white and
color slides, approximately 179 gelatin silver prints of various sizes, and a panoramic
print of the 1989 symposium participants at the Templo Mayor Museum in Mexico City, also
reproduced as a symposium poster. Desmond's unpublished catalog of his MMARP photographs,
"Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project, 1982-1994: Catalog of Black-and-White and Color
Negatives and Transparencies," 2013, accompanies the collection. Also included are two
signed copies of Davíd Carrasco and Jane Marie Swanberg,
Waiting for
the Dawn: Mircea Eliade in Perspective
, 1985, illustrated with a number of
Desmond's early MMARP photographs.
Davíd Carrasco, a historian of religions, and archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, the
founders of MMARP along with archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni, met in 1976 via a letter of
introduction from the archaeologist Pedro Armillas. At the time Carrasco was conducting
field research in Mexico, while at the University of Chicago, and Matos was Director of
Pre-Hispanic Monuments. Finding they had common interests they began to discuss the need to
bring Mesoamerican materials into dynamic exchange with the academic discipline of the
history of religions, and especially the history of religion and culture in the Americas. In
its early years their project was known as the Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project
(MARP). In 1984 Raphael Moses, a water rights attorney and member of the University of
Colorado's board of regents, became interested in the project and agreed to help fund it;
the project was subsequently renamed the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project
(MMARP). The MMARP's intellectual mission is to organize and transmit new knowledge about
the history of religion and society in Mesoamerica. Its educational program is modeled on
the interdisciplinary work of the Templo Mayor Project in Mexico City guided by Eduardo
Matos Moctezuma. MMARP is currently housed in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology at Harvard University.
In 1982, Carrasco invited Matos Moctezuma to give a talk on the excavation of the Templo
Mayor in Mexico City at the University of Colorado-Boulder. This is the first of the MMARP
events documented in the collection. Later that year Mircea Eliade, the noted Romanian
historian of religion from the University of Chicago whose ideas had influenced Carrasco and
Matos Moctezuma, led a week-long multi-disciplinary symposium at Boulder. Lawrence Desmond,
then a graduate student in anthropology and archaeology at Boulder, who was already making
photographs for the MMARP Templo Mayor Archaeological Site Photo Archive, photographed these
early events, thereby becoming the unofficial photographer for MMARP. He continued to
document its activities until 1999.
Carrasco, Matos Moctezuma, Eliade, and his wife Christinel Cotescue Eliade, are prominently
featured in the photographs. Other symposia participants pictured in the collection include
Anthony Aveni, Elizabeth Boone, José Cuellar, Barbara Fash, Doris Heyden, Jaime Litvak King,
Cecelia Klein, Leonardo López Luján, Charles K. Long, Phyllis Messenger, Raphael Moses,
Henry B. Nicholson, and Desmond himself. Most of the photographs were taken during the
symposia and at symposia receptions and meals. Symposia speakers and participants are
represented in individual images and in both posed and candid group portraits.
The photographic materials are black-and-white (negatives or gelatin silver prints), unless
otherwise noted. The negatives and their corresponding contact prints are numbered 4-01 to
4-47 and were originally arranged sequentially in a single binder, the order of which has
been retained.
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically by date of symposium.
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Names
Fash, Barbara W.,
1955-
Heyden, Doris
López Luján, Leonardo
Eliade,
Christinel
Boone, Elizabeth Hill
Carrasco, David
Eliade, Mircea, 1907-1986
Aveni, Anthony F.
Nicholson, H. B. (Henry
B.)
Moses, Raphael J.,
1913-
Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo
Litvak King, Jaime
Klein, Cecelia F.
Long, Charles H.
Subjects - Corporate Bodies
Museo del Templo Mayor (Mexico City,
Mexico)
Mesoamerican Archive and Research
Project--Congresses
Genres and Forms of Material
Panoramas -- Mexico -- 20th century
Group portraits -- United States -- 20th century
Photographs, Original
Contact prints -- United States -- 20th century
Group portraits -- Mexico -- 20th century
Gelatin silver prints -- United States -- 20th century
Color slides -- Mexico -- 20th century
Contributors
Desmond, Lawrence Gustave,
1935-
Lawrence Gustave Desmond Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project
(MMARP) Photographs
University of Colorado, Boulder
box 1, folder 1
Eduardo Matos,
1982
Scope and Content Note
35 mm negatives and corresponding contact sheets labeled 4-01 and 4-02.
"The Works of Mircea Eliade,"
1982
box 1, folder 2
Negatives and contact sheets
Scope and Content Note
35 mm negatives and corresponding contact sheets labeled 4-01 to 4-08.
box 2, folder 1
8 x 10 inch
Scope and Content Note
Nineteen prints; one wet stamped on verso: Photograph / by / Lawrence G.
Desmond.
box 2, folder 2
5 x 7 inch
Scope and Content Note
Fifty-seven prints. Ten signed on verso: L.G. Desmond. One annotated on verso:
Tony Aveni 1980s CO-Boulder. Photo by L.G. Desmond & print.
box 3, folder 2
Mircea Eliade
Scope and Content Note
One 8 x 10 inch print on 14 x 11 inch mount of Eliade wearing a hat and
seated with his legs crossed. Verso bears typewritten caption and the
annotation: Photo and print by / Lawrence G. Desmond.
box 4
Exhibition prints
Scope and Content Note
Seventeen prints 6 x 8 3/4 inches and smaller on mounts 20 x 15 inches. All
are signed and dated on mount below image and have typewritten captions
adhered to their versos. Two prints of Eliade are signed on the mount: Mircea
Eliade / Colorado / May 1, 1985. The prints were exhibited at the 1985 MMARP
symposium at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
David Carasco and Eduardo Matos in hat shop
box 2, folder 5
8 x 10 inch
Scope and Content Note
Three 8 x 10 inch prints of Matos in various hats and one print of Matos and
Carrasco in hats with dedications from both of them to Desmond written on the
face of the print. Photgrapher's name, date and location written on versos of
all prints.
box 3, folder 1
8 x 10 inch mounted print
Scope and Content Note
One print on 14 x 11 inch mount of Matos and Carrasco in hats with
dedications from both of them to Desmond written on the face of the print.
Verso bears a typewritten caption dated 1983; the annotation: Photo and print
by; and the blind stamp: Lawrence G. Desmond.
"Waiting for the Dawn: A Reception for Mircea Eliade,"
1985
box 1, folder 3
Negatives and contact sheets
Scope and Content Note
35 mm negatives and corresponding contact sheets labeled 4-09 to 4-12, including
three copies of the 4-09 contact sheets and two copies of the 4-10 contact
sheets.
box 2, folder 3
8 x 10 inch
Scope and Content Note
Twenty-seven prints. One wet stamped on verso: Photograph / by / Lawrence G.
Desmond. Two prints with typewritten copyright notices, photographer's name and
address and captions adhered to their versos. One caption reads: Mircea Eliade,
1982. Reading "Waiting for the Dawn." Glenn Miller Auditorium, University of /
Colorado, Boulder; and the other, depicting Eliade seated and wearing a hat,
reads: Mircea Eliade, 1982. Glenn Miller Auditorium, University of Colorado,
Boulder. Both of these images are reproduced in Carrasco and Swanberg,
Waiting for the Dawn: Mircea Eliade in Perspective,
1985.
box 2, folder 4
Duplicates
Scope and Content Note
Twenty-eight 8 x 10 inch prints. Includes photographs from 1982.
box 3, folder 1
Mircea Eliade
Scope and Content Note
One 8 x 10 inch print on 14 x 11 inch mount of Eliade seated, holding his pipe
in one hand and gesturing with his other hand. Signed and dated on mount below
image.
box 5
Lawrence Desmond and Mircea Eliade viewing Desmond
exhibition
Scope and Content Note
One 8 x 9 1/4 inch color print on mount 15 x 15 1/4 inches. Annotation on
verso: Lawrence Desmond and / Mircea Eliade. / Boulder, CO 1985 / "Viewing my
photos" in exhibit at the University of Colorado. / Photographer not
identified.
box 6, folder 3
Davíd Carrasco and Jane Marie Swanberg, editors,
Waiting for the Dawn: Mircea Eliade in Perspective
Scope and Content Note
Two copies. The photographs included in this book were taken by Desmond at MMARP
symposia. One copy is signed to Desmond by Mircea and Christinel Elaiade. The
second is signed to Desmond by both of the Eliades and both editors.
box 6, folder 2
Reception for Mircea and Christinel Eliade
Scope and Content Note
Three copies of typed program hleld on the occasion of the publication of
Waiting for the Dawn.
box 1, folder 4
MMARP-Hale SC 1,
1983
Scope and Content Note
Negative sheet 4-13. Images depict the MMARP office in the Hale Science Building at
the University of Colorado, Boulder. Also included are views of and from Desmond's
apartment in Boulder.
box 1, folder 5
Litvak 1984, Aveni 1986,
1984-1986
Scope and Content Note
Negative sheet 4-14. Includes Jaime Litvak King in Mexico City (UNAM) and Anthony
Aveni in the MMARP offices.
box 1, folder 6
"The Imagination of Matter: Religion and Ecology in Mesoamerican
Traditions,"
1986
Scope and Content Note
The photographs are from either "The Imagination of Matter: Religion and Ecology in
Mesoamerican Traditions" or "Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the
Interpretation of Religion: Conversations with Charles H. Long."
Negative sheet 4-15 and print 8 x 10 inch print are a group portrait of seminar
participants. Includes typewritten identification key.
box 1, folder 7
"Consultation on the Future of Aztec Studies: Center and Periphery in the
Mexica World,"
1987
Scope and Content Note
Negative sheets 4-16 to 4-18.
box 1, folder 8
"Performance and Place: Aztec Centers, Aztec Actions,"
1988
Scope and Content Note
Negative and contact sheets 4-19 to 4-22.
box 1, folder 10
"Tradition and Innovation in Aztec Society,"
1991
Scope and Content Note
Negative sheets 4-31 to 4-38.
box 1, folder 11
"Aztec Time and the Ceremonial Landscape,"
1992
Scope and Content Note
Negative sheets 4-39 to 4-42.
box 2, folder 6
Group portraits,
1985-1988
Scope and Content Note
Fourteen 8 x 10 inch prints, all dated on verso, four signed on verso and six with
typewritten keys adhered to versos.
box 1, folder 9
"Ceremonial Landscapes in Aztec Religion: Focusing on
Specifics,"
Scope and Content Note
Held at the Templo Mayor Museum, Mexico City. Also includes images taken at the
exhibition
Herencia Recuperada, at the National
Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City.
Negative and contact sheets 4-23 to 4-29 and 4 x 5 inch negative 4-30. Also
includes one 5 x 7 print from sheet 4-27; two 5 x 7 inch prints from sheet 4-29; and
three 8 x 10 inch prints and two pieced panorama prints, one with typewritten key,
from sheets 4-29 and 4-30.
box 1, folder 14
Templo Mayor
Scope and Content Note
Nineteen 35 mm color slides.
Princeton University,
1994-1999
box 1, folder 12
The Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Templo Mayor [?],
1994
Scope and Content Note
The MMARP website lists this conference as the first of two conferences having
taken place in 1995.
Negative and contact sheets 4-43 to 4-45.
"Reimagining Mesoamerica: Archive, Community, and
Interpretation,"
1999
box 1, folder 13
Negatives
Scope and Content Note
Color negative sheets 4-46 and 4-47 (Kodak Gold 100-6).
flatfile 1**
Poster
Scope and Content Note
Text on poster reads: Reimagining Mesoamerica: Archive, Community, and
Interpretation / 15th Anniversary of the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research
Project / April 8-11, 1999 Princeton University. The poster reproduces the
panorama of the 1989 symposium participants wearing 3-D glasses (used for
Desmond's talk on the stereographs of Augustus and Alice Dixon Le Plongeon) at the
Templo Mayor Museum, Mexico City.
box 6, folder 1
Desmond, Lawrence G., "Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project, 1982-1994:
Catalog of Black-and-White and Color Negatives and Transparencies,"
2013
