Harry MacBean Collection

This collection contains an album of 108 gelatin silver photographs of Colombia, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries taken by an American traveler around 1922. All but 3 photographs contain captions. The front cover reads, “the front cover "Harry MacBean. Cartagena, Colombia S.A. July 4th 1922."

This collection of photos of Colombia were taken by an American traveler around 1922 and includes 23 photos taken on a trip up the Rio Magdalena as far as Honda, and 40+ views of Cartagena, towns and villages in the Atlantico department and portraits of local residents (with several names captioned). The trip may be related to American oil or mineral companies, as two photos read "LA. Scholl, chief geol." at Primavera, and three show the village of Barrancabermeja and the Tropical Oil Company's camp (est. in 1919).

The photos of the trip up the Rio Magdalena show Puerto Wilches, the village of Barrancabermeja and Tropical Oil Company's camp, several views of the river near Primavera, featuring a river steamer (including portraits of "Yours truly & Critt down Rio Maggie," "Luis at Primavera," "L.A. Scholl, chief geol. & Luis at Primavera," "Critt & Scholl"), three views of a "patio at Primavera Hacienda" (with people posing), four views of Honda (general view with Rio Magdalena, three street views featuring the signs of "Hotel Washington" and "The Colombia Railways and Navigation Co. Ltd."), and "bridge over Magdalena at Honda." Over twenty photos show various sites of Colombia and portraits of Colombians (several names captioned): "Arauca Colomb. & Arauca R., boundary of Colomb. & Venez.," "mud volcano," "looking south in Andes Mts. toward Bogota," Usiacuri (a street view, "bath house for sulphur baths"), "mountain scene," "Maniti" (four street scenes), Puerto (two views of the harbor), San Felipe, Baranoa, "Lake Tortuga & our mulas," "house of rich cattleman," "Old church - Savanagrande," "Don Jorge Ortiz & wife of Bogota," "Ortiz haciender," "Ortiz on cow pony," "Ortiz, brother & Critt," and others, Over twenty views show Cartagena - general views with Convento de la Popa, El Cabrero neighborhood, "old prison used for slaves," "old Spanish fort," MacBean and his friends posing on the sea shore, before a bull fight, swimming (with several names captioned, i.e. Mr. & Mrs. Birchall, Butterfield, Walters, Hollige, and others), etc. The album also contains about fifteen views of Venezuela, showing "pack mules at Rio Frio, starting for S. Cristobal," "Looking over Rio Casanaire," "in mountains of Venezuela," four views of Encontrados (Zulia State, showing workers "loading coffee", station of the "Gran Ferrocarril del Tachira," street view, local children), and eight scenes of a bull fight in Caracas. There are also about a dozen original photos of Curaçao, Dutch West Indies (Willemstad waterfront, governor's palace, the ship channel, the pontoon bridge, street views with "Hotel Suiza," "Dutch Old fort, wireless station and entrance to Curaçao”, "ostrich farm” etc.); and several street scenes taken in Kingston, Jamaica.