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Statements on Archival Content and Description

Historical records of the former ASARCO El Paso smelter site

ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company) had a smelter in El Paso that was founded in the 1880s by Robert Towne and that became part of ASARCO in 1889.  The facility was a custom smelter that processed several different metals from ore that came from diverse sites.  Although lead and zinc were extracted at the site, copper was the main product in the later years of operation.  The plant closed in 1999, and, in 2009, the site was turned over to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as part of a bankruptcy agreement.  The trustee of the site turned over many documents that had been left at the site to the University of Texas at El Paso Library.  The collection, called the Historical records of the former ASARCO El Paso smelter site, MS585, is quite large.  It consists of approximately 12,000 oversized drawings and plans, 77 ledgers and bound copies of correspondence or indexes, 4 framed panoramic photos, approximately 3000 black-and-white negatives, 250 color slides, and several hundred aerial views and maps.  Not all the materials relate specifically to the former smelter site in El Paso; some show facilities in Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, or Colorado.

Oscar C. Bernard Collection

Oscar C. Bernard was a musician, photographer, inventor, and businessman. He was born in 1861 and moved to El Paso in 1900. He opened a photography studio and developed a stereopticon machine that combined sound with images projected on a screen. Bernard lived to be one hundred years old. The Oscar C. Bernard photographs, PH047, consist of glass plate negatives, magic lantern slides, and sheet negatives. The collection was donated by Leon C. Metz.

Wayne Brendt Print and Postcard Collection

Consists primarily of photographs and postcards from the early twentieth century. The photographic postcards document the Mexican Revolution, U. S. intervention in Veracruz in 1914, and General John J. Pershing's Punitive Expedition into Mexico in 1916. Wayne N. Brendt was a Vietnam veteran, retired military journalist, and employee of the El Paso Community College.

Manuel Carrillo Photograph Collection

Manuel Carrillo, 1906-1989, was a Mexican photographer who is best known for documenting traditional Mexico. His photographs depict people, animals, and scenes from Mexican towns and villages. The University of Texas at El Paso purchased his papers and photographs from his widow in 1990. This selection of photographs from Carrillo’s own list of most-requested or exhibited images was scanned from the original negatives or from contact sheets; the images shown in this online collection are full-frame, although he often cropped the images for a different composition or emphasis. Carrillo assigned reference numbers to the images and described them in a sort of short-hand style: his descriptions are not titles per se, since he generally exhibited his photographs as untitled.

Casasola Photograph Collection

Most of the photographs in this collection are from the early work of the Casasola Photograph Studio. Since Mr. Alfonso Casasola died in 1948, work by other photographers is also included in this collection. Casasola Studios employed many young photographers over the years, several of whom went on to start their own studios. For instance, Mr. José Andow started as an apprentice while still a teenager, and worked for Mr. Casasola both before and after his service in World War II. The collection contains over 2500 images. This is a selection of all identified photos.

James Wilson Cassell magic lantern slides

James Wilson Cassell was a medical doctor based in New York who was also an amateur photographer. He was active in masonic organizations. He often used his collection of magic lantern slides for travel talks at masonic lodges. Most of the slides have Beseler Lantern Slide Company printed on the mounts, but it is unclear whether some of the slides were part of educational sets sold by that company or whether that company only processed and possibly hand-colored Dr. Cassell’s own photographs. The collection with an estimated 2300 slides consists mostly of travel images of foreign places and archaeological sites, but also contains photographs from the United States. Less than 150 images have been scanned for online access at this point; those slides with Mexican content appear to date from the early 1920s.

Franklin Lee Cleavenger

Franklin Lee Cleavenger moved to Chihuahua, Mexico, with his family to supervise the installation of a telephone system there in the early twentieth century. Franklin Lee Cleavenger was superintendent of the Compañía Telefónica de Chihuahua, and the collection shows some of the facilities of that enterprise as well as family scenes. The family lived in the city of Chihuahua and visited many natural and cultural attractions in the area, which they documented with photographs. A great-grandson, Darrell Cleavenger of El Paso, Texas, found a collection of glass plate negatives, many deteriorating because of poor storage conditions, and brought them to the University of Texas at El Paso Library to be scanned and made available to the public. The period of time that the family spent in Chihuahua included years of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920, and the business was often disrupted by the violence and disorder occasioned by the war.

Doña Ana Sheriff's Collection

Consisting of twenty 8" x 10" black-and-white photographs and corresponding negatives, this collection documents the sheriffs of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, through formal portraits. The men depicted were sheriffs between 1854 and 1963; this collection of images is not, however, a complete accounting of all sheriffs who served during that time period. The photographs are of the following: A.L. "Happy" Apodaca, Martin Lohman, Miguel Apodaca, Felipe Lucero, Guadalupe Ascarate, José R. Lucero, Santiago Ascárate, Santo Ramírez, Mariano Barela, Numa Raymond, Reyes Barela, Donaciano E. Rodríguez, Samuel G. Bean, Frank Z. Romero, Henry J. Cuniffe, Ricardo Treviz, Alfredo H. García, Eugene Van Patten, Patrick F. Garrett, and José M. Viramontes. Leon C. Metz, former University archivist at º£½ÇÉçÇø, obtained special permission to copy photographs hanging in the Doña Ana County Courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1968.

Samuel Fant Collection

Samuel W. Fant, Jr. (1907 – 1990) was a portrait photographer with a studio in El Paso. He specialized in glamorous shots of women and dabbled in movie production. The Samuel Fant photograph collection, PH058, was donated to the º£½ÇÉçÇø library by photographer José Andow. It consists of files of sheet negatives arranged by name of the subject.

Gertrude Fitzgerald Photographs

The Gertrude Fitzgerald photographs images consist primarily of photographs taken by Gertrude Fitzgerald of her family life and people and places related to the travel and work of her husband. The first series, photographs taken by Gertrude Fitzgerald, contains the earliest images. This series consists of photographs of places in Mexico City, mostly Chapultepec or the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Images of the Fitzgerald children in the mountainous town of Madera, Chihuahua are included, as well as photographs of workers in the Pearson Lumber Company near Madera. Also in this series are photographs of Federal troops preparing for or returning from military actions in the Mexican Revolution (about 1910). This series concludes with a small group of photographs of landscapes and ruins near Casas Grandes in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Other images show scenes from the El Paso, Texas area, including local landmarks and military life at Fort Bliss as well as some photos from Mesilla, New Mexico. Series II includes photographs not taken by Gertrude Fitzgerald, which are of the mines in Hurley and Santa Teresa, New Mexico and panoramic shots of Mexican revolutionaries. Series III contains photographs of the Fitzgerald family. These images include family photographs, ephemeral material and a large collection of postcards of El Paso, Texas. The last series is a selection of framed photographs, mostly of the Mexican revolution. The physical makeup of the collection consists mainly of large format negatives and four glass plates along with original photographs.

Ernest Hoppock railroad collection

The collection consists chiefly of photographs of various types of locomotives and freight cars from several different railroads. In addition, there are a wide variety photographs of circuses and carnivals, including shots of circus animals, and vehicles for hauling animals and equipment. There are also photographs of animals and exhibits taken at the El Paso Zoo. Other items in the collection include an assortment of railroad-related publications, including train schedules and railway guides. The collection also contains several issues of the Santa Fe Magazine.

Tom Lea Institute photographs

Photographic negatives taken around 1900 in the El Paso-Juarez area were delivered to the º£½ÇÉçÇø Library by a representative of the Tom Lea Institute. The collection consists mostly of glass plate negatives with a few nitrate-based sheet negatives included. The collection was given to James Lea by his father, artist and writer Tom Lea, and presumably collected by lawyer and former El Paso mayor Tom Lea, Sr. Some of the photographs show events surrounding the visit by President William McKinley in May of 1901. Although the glass plates may show damage or image loss around the edges, many buildings and business names may be identified, as well as the text of some signs in a parade. The collection includes photos of mission churches in the area such as Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Cd. Juárez and the Misión de Corpus Christi church in Ysleta, Texas as well as views of irrigation canals or acequias and agricultural lands. Street scenes show adobe, rock, or brick buildings and modes of transportation including horses, donkeys, carriages, wagons, and streetcars.

McMaster Postcard Collection

This collection consists of postcards and photographs relating to the U.S. Army in the early twentieth century, World War I, and the Mexican Revolution. Army colonel and writer Richard K. McMaster wrote about military topics and published Musket, Saber, and Missile: A History of Fort Bliss (1962); The Caparisoned Horse (1968); º£½ÇÉçÇø Point's Contribution to Education, 1802-1952 (1961); and Polo for Beginners and Spectators (1954). He attended the Texas º£½ÇÉçÇøern College after retiring from the Army.

Mexican Revolution photograph collection

This collection consists of over 300 photographic prints, 15 photographic negatives, and 42 postcards that came from several different sources. The subject content predominantly relates to the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920, although some images are tourist or general interest photographs of Mexico from the period. Of particular interest are photographs taken at Francisco Madero’s camp across the Rio Grande from El Paso in May 1911. Also included are images of prominent figures of the period such as Pancho Villa, Francisco Madero, Pascual Orozco, and other military and political leaders. The collection contains some still photos from motion pictures made about the Mexican Revolution.

Leigh W. Osborn Photograph Collection

Consists primarily of photographic postcards with images of the Mexican Revolution. Includes Madero's camps and military personnel in 1911. Many images are posed group shots. Also includes some landscapes and buildings in Shafter, Texas. Photographs collected by Leigh W. Osborn, widow of Oliver S. Osborn and sister of author Owen P. White.

Stansel Postcard Collection

This collection consists of postcards removed from an album purchased at a Stansel family estate sale by Richard and Patricia Worthington in 1999. Most of the postcards are mechanically reproduced scenes from El Paso, Texas; Cloudcroft and Alamogordo, New Mexico; or Mexico--many with added color. Some of the postcards are real photographic reproductions in black and white. The postcards date from the late 19th or early 20th century.

Stout-Feldman Studio photographs

In 1895, California native Fred J. Feldman leased and later purchased the photographic business of the Bushong Studio in downtown El Paso, Texas. The Fred J. Feldman Studio thrived during the 1910s and 1920s and became the premier photographic business in El Paso. Feldman was particularly well known for his skill in portraiture. He photographed many prominent businessmen, bankers, judges, mayors, and attorneys as well as society women and community groups. In 1916, Samuel Stout came to El Paso to manage the Feldman Studio. After taking over the studio following Feldman’s death in 1923, Stout designed a Spanish-style building for the photographic business at 1330 Montana Street, and the business became the Stout-Feldman Studio. The studio continued to take photographs of local residents, buildings, and events and took yearly photographs of students and organizations at local schools and colleges, including the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy (later called Texas º£½ÇÉçÇøern College and the University of Texas at El Paso) and New Mexico College A&M (later known as New Mexico State University). After Samuel Stout’s death in 1954, his son Walter continued the studio until the late 1960s. The collection contains glass plate and film negatives from about 1900 through the early 1950s. The º£½ÇÉçÇø Library purchased the collection from Achilles Studio after the negatives had been stored in the studio’s basement for many years.

Ada Tharp Photograph Collection

This elaborate photo album or lap desk contains photographs of African Americans and other individuals of undetermined ethnicity dating from approximately 1870 to 1925. The types of photographs include tintypes, cabinet cards, cartes de visite, silver gelatin prints, and photo booth snapshots. Little is known about the creator of the collection: the album was abandoned in a freight forwarding facility in Kentucky where an employee took it to a local library because he did not want it destroyed. The librarian noticed that many of the photographs had been taken by El Paso photographers, so she contacted the º£½ÇÉçÇø Library which accepted it as a donation. A small amount of correspondence found with the album was addressed to Ada Tharp, Thorp, or possibly Thorne, so we decided that she was probably the original owner. Few of the photographs are identified. The album includes a removable writing surface and spaces for stationery, ink, and pen, thus its name—a “lap desk.” The subjects of the photographs include African American men in military uniforms, many photos of African American women and children, and other well-dressed people. Besides El Paso, Texas, many other locations are mentioned including other cities in Texas, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and towns in Arkansas, Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, and New Mexico.

Federico Wulff Collection

Federico Wulff was a German-American engineer born in San Antonio and educated in Hanover, Germany. He lived and worked in Torreon, Coahuila, for most of his adult life, serving for part of that time as the German consul. He moved to Torreon in the 1890s with his family (who also lived for a time in San Antonio) and experienced the disruption of the Mexican Revolution. The photo collection contains photographs of his family that included several small children; street scenes and dam construction in Coahuila; events from the Mexican Revolution in and around Torreon; and some images from San Antonio and El Paso. The collection consists of negatives and prints from the early twentieth century, including some glass plate negatives--some stereo images or panoramic photographs. Collection was donated by his daughter Tulitas Jamieson, who wrote an autobiographical memoir, Tulitas of Torreon.