"Faces drawn in the sand": A rescue project of native peoples' photographs stored at the Museum of la Plata, Argentina

Abstract

The photographic collections stored at Museo de La Plata provide a picture of pre-industrial societies of a wide area of South America during the late 19- early 20th centuries. They include photographs on paper, albumen prints, and glass plate negatives,among other formats. The materials, which have been affected by fungi and which were improperly stored, were the subject of two projects funded by the British Library Endangered Archives Programme. This paper aims to present the results of both projects, as well as to underline the need for rescuing archives threatened by physical conditions and by the lack of care (e.g., the absence of inventories). First, we briefly describe the state of the photographic archive before the project began. The second part is devoted to the development and results of the project. Finally, we discuss the relevance of this kind of initiative for the future of the collections and historical research.