Photographs made by Hamilton Wright Jr. in Egypt, South Africa, India, Lebanon, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea, Hong Kong, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Haiti, the Virgin Islands, Canada, Alaska, Colorado, and New Hampshire. They include images of modern and ancient structures and monuments, artifacts, industries, cities, markets, caves, festivals, beaches, scenery, and sporting events. Most appear to have been made for the Hamilton Wright Organization, an international agency that made films and photographs to support public relations campaigns of foreign governments. Also included are some lantern slides depicting historical sites in Egypt, directed by Hamilton Wright, Sr., and one-sheets for motion picture films produced by the Hamilton Wright Organization. Additional material includes slide narration for a lecture and short news stories relating to the images in the collection.
Biographical/Historical note:
In 1908, Hamilton Wright Sr. founded the Hamilton Wright Organization, a public relations firm that specialized in making travelog and newsreel film and distributing it to motion picture houses around the world, often on behalf of domestic and foreign governments. Wright's son, Hamilton Wright Jr., managed the company after his father and expanded it's work. In 1963, a Senate committee criticized the Hamilton Wright Organization for hosting press junkets and distributing its photographs, newsreels, and stories in American news media without reporting its sources. The Hamilton Wright Organization was closed by Hamilton Wright Jr.'s son in the late 1960s.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 76-35
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Films by the Hamilton Wright Organization can be found in the Human Studies Film Archive in HSFA 94.19.
The Film and Television Archive at the University of California at Los Angeles holds the motion picture film and related material of the Hamilton Wright Organization.
Potosí (Bolivia : Dept.) -- Description and travel.
Puno (Peru : Dept.)
Andes Region -- Economic integration.
Taquili (Peru) -- Economic conditions
Peru
Taquili (Peru) -- Social life and customs
Date:
1971-2010
Summary:
The Elayne Zorn Collection measures 11 linear feet and contains thousands of photographic objects including negatives, slides and prints. The collection material spans the years of Zorn's professional and student activity in the fields of anthropology and Latin American studies from around 1975 until 2010. The material in this collection reflects Zorn's long association with the community in Taquile, Peru which led up to the publication of her book, Weaving a Future, in 2004. Zorn also spent a significant amount of time conducting field research in Andean communities in Bolivia examining the relationships between tourism and textiles. Zorn's additional professional activities included serving as a textile collector and expert advisor for museum collections and exhibitions as well as performing academic duties at the University of Central Florida.
Scope and Contents:
The Elayne Zorn Collection spans the years of Zorn's professional and student activity in the fields of anthropology and Latin American studies from 1975 until 2010. This includes material from Zorn's field research in the Andean Regions of Peru and Bolivia as well as her professional activities as a textile collector and expert advisor for museum collections and exhibitions. This collection is arranged into six series with additional subseries. Series 1, Field Research, includes field notebooks, correspondence, and general research from Taquile, Peru, Sakaka, Bolivia and La Paz, Bolivia. Series 2, Professional Activities, includes presentation and lecture notes, object catalogs for various museum collections and Zorn's academic work conducted at the University of Central Florida. Series 3, Publications and Writings, contains both articles written by Zorn, including her Master's thesis and dissertation, and articles published by colleagues. Series 4, Ephemera and Miscellaneous, contains a variety of materials including posters, postcards, datebooks and calendars as well as material gathered by Zorn's former husband, Juan Cutipa. Series 5, Photographs, includes negatives, slides, prints and digital media that document Zorn's work in the field. The bulk of the photographs capture the daily lives of weavers as well as important community holidays and festivals. Series 6, Audio-Visual Materials, includes a small amount of VHS tapes as well as audio-cassettes on which Zorn recorded traditional Andean music performed at festivals she attended in Peru and Bolivia.
Arrangement:
Series 1: Field Research, 1975-2006
Subseries 1.1: Taquile, Peru, 1975-1994 [1977-1981]
Subseries 1.2: Sakaka, Bolivia, 1985-1994
Subseries 1.3: La Paz, Bolivia, 2006
Subseries 1.4: Miscellaneous Field Notes, 1976-2006
Series 2: Professional Activities, 1978-2010
Subseries 2.1: Conferences and Presentations, 1977-2009
Subseries 2.2: Museum Work, 1976-2008
Subseries 2.3: General, 1976-2010
Series 3: Publications and Writings, 1979-2009
Subseries 3.1: Elayne Zorn, 1979-2009
Subseries 3.2: Other Authors, 1979-2005
Series 4: Ephemera and Miscellaneous, 1975-2009
Series 5: Photographs, 1970-2006
Subseries 5.1: Negatives, 1976-1997
Subseries 5.2: Slides, 1970-2002
Subseries 5.3: Prints, 1978-2000
Subseries 5.4: Digital Media, 2002-2006
Series 6: Audio-Visual Materials, 1983-1994
Subseries 6.1: Cassette Tapes, 1983-1991
Subseries 6.2: Videotapes, 1991-1994
Biographical / Historical:
Elayne Leslie Zorn was born on February 3, 1952 in New York City. She attended Hunter College High School and Barnard College. She received her Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree in Textile Arts from the California College of the Arts in 1975. She then began a long association with the community on the Island of Taquile, in the Puno region of Peru, conducting fieldwork on native weaving techniques. She also began a long-term affiliation with the Museo Nacional de Etnografia y Folklore in La Paz, Bolivia and collected textiles in the Macusani region of Peru for an exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences. She received her Master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas, Austin in 1983, with fieldwork concentrated on economic development and tourism in Taquile, Peru. During her time in Peru in the 1970's and 1980's, Zorn became an accomplished musician, playing the charango and Bolivian mandolin in performances in Andean towns as well as in New York City. Zorn resumed graduate studies in 1985 at Cornell University where she received her Master of Arts degree in anthropology in 1987 followed by her Ph.D. in 1997. At Cornell she worked under the supervision of Professor Billie Jean Isbell and conducted much of her dissertation fieldwork in Sakaka, Bolivia focusing on the global transformation of cloth and identity in highland Andean regions. Zorn worked as a visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Colgate University from 1997 to 1998 and then hired as Professor of Anthropology at the University of Central Florida from 1998 until 2010. While at the University of Central Florida, Zorn received both teaching-related and research-related awards as well as grants to continue her fieldwork in the Andean regions of Peru and Bolivia. She also co-directed the PeruVine/PeruDigital Project, an interactive and immersive website to present field data from Peru's Institute of Ethnomusicology online. In 2004 Zorn published her book, Weaving a Future: Tourism, Cloth and Culture on an Andean Island (University of Iowa Press), an analysis of textile traditions as it relates to global change.
In addition to her academic duties, throughout her career Zorn collaborated with various museums and cultural institutions as a consultant and collector. These included, but are not limited to, The Brooklyn Museum, The Textile Museum, Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs, UNICEF and the Inter-American Foundation. She was also a member of various professional societies including the American Anthropological Association, the Bolivian Studies Association, the Society for Latin American, Carribean, and Latino Studies as well as the Textile Society of America. Zorn passed away June 15, 2010 and was survived by her mother, Sandra Gordon, and her son, Gavriel Cutipa-Zorn.
Sources:
http://anthropology.cos.ucf.edu/include/file/people/cv/zorn_elayne.pdf (Accessed May 01, 2012)
http://digitalethnography.dm.ucf.edu/pv/Zorn.html (Accessed May 1, 2012)
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Gavriel Cutipa-Zorn, Elayne Zorn's son in April of 2011.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Due to their fragile nature, the Audio-Visual materials in this collection are closed to researchers until they have been digitized.
Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadbast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Collection Title, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Adventures in Bolivia, by C. H. Prodgers, with an introduction by R. B. Cunninghame Graham; illustrated from the author's original sketches and photographs
Perú y Bolivia : relato de viaje : seguido de estudios arqueológicos y etnográficos y de notas sobre la escritura y los idiomas de las poblaciones indígenas / por Charles Wiener ; traducido al Castellano por Edgardo Rivera Martínez
Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale : (le Brésil, la république orientale de l'Uruguay, la République argentine, la Patagonie, la république du Chili, la république de Bolivia, la républiquedu Pérou), exécuté pendant les années 1826, 1827, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, et 1833 / par Alcide d'Orbigny ... ; ouvrage dédié au roi et publié sous les auspices de m. le ministre de l'instruc...
Author:
Orbigny, Alcide Dessalines d' 1802-1857 Search this
Author:
Montagne, Jean François Camille 1784-1866 Search this
Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von 1794-1868 Search this
Viaje a la América meridional : Brasil, República de Uruguay, República Argentina, La Patagonia, República de Chile, República de Bolivia, República del Perú : realizado de 1826 a 1833 / Alcide d'Orbigny ; [versión directa de Alfredo Cepeda, revisada para la presente edición por Edgardo Rivera Martinéz y Anne-Marie Brougère]
Author:
Orbigny, Alcide Dessalines d' 1802-1857 Search this
Experiences of an ornithologist along the highways and byways of Bolivia : collecting birds in an isolated, magnificent land in the nineteen thirties / Melbourne Armstrong Carriker, Jr. ; edited by Melbourne Romaine Carriker and Robert C. Dalgleish
Author:
Carriker, Melbourne Armstrong 1879-1965 Search this
Carriker, Melbourne R (Melbourne Romaine) 1915-2007 Search this
