"Imaging has two different meanings in this emerging technological age, as the Library of Congress expands its mission from providing actual images that can be accessed physically to virtual images that can be accessed visually through our American Memory project," which provides images of American history from the Library's collections on the Internet (//memory.loc.gov/).
So said Dr. Billington in his introduction to "Imaging the City in the Americas: Washington, D.C., and Mexico City, 1910," a symposium sponsored by the Hispanic Division, the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, the Mexican Cultural Institute and the University of Maryland at College Park.
The first session, held on Oct. 23, focused on "Archives, Media and Representation." Thomas F. Reese, deputy director of the Getty Research Institute, spoke about the concept for the symposium, developed at Getty, concerning how "images and representations developed to convey ideas and transform behaviors, contribute to the development of identities in urban spaces." He dedicated the symposium to the memory of art historian George Kubler at Yale, who was a pioneer in Latin American research. The presentations that followed reflected the organization of source material at the Library of Congress and in photo archives in Mexico.
Ford Peatross of the Library's Prints and Photographs Division opened the discussion with a selection of Library holdings on building commissions and the designs submitted for consideration. If one design was rejected for Washington, Mr. Peatross explained, then it would be offered for another building in perhaps another city until it had been accepted. Many buildings showed the influence of the Beaux Arts School, exhibited in the newly refurbished Great Hall of the Jefferson Building.
Ronald Grim of the Geography and Map Division displayed some of the Library's maps, panoramic views from 1834 to 1923 and Sanborn fire insurance maps. Mr. Grim compared the buildings of Washington, many of which were made of wood, with those in Mexico City, many more of which were composed of stone, indicating their antiquity.
David Parker of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division concluded the Library's presentations by comparing Mexican and U.S. filmmaking styles.
John Mraz, currently on leave from the Universidad Autónoma de Puebla and teaching at Dartmouth College, discussed the archive of the brothers Casasola, kept at the Fototeca of the Instituto Nacional de Antropólogia e Historia in Pachuca, Hidalgo. He spoke of the continuing efforts to make more accessible this collection of more than 600,000 photographs by almost 500 photographers - the richest trove of Mexico for the period 1880 to 1920. He concluded by showing the work of innovative photographers whose artistry is not widely known. The session ended with Martha Davidson, an independent photo researcher, speaking about other pictorial archives in Mexico City, including those in the General Archives of the Nation and the Center for the Study of History. The collections augment the resources about Mexico City before the 1910 revolution.
That evening, cultural critic Carlos Monsiváis, who had recorded earlier for the Library's Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, spoke on Mexico City in 1910 at the Mexican Cultural Institute. Mr. Monsiváis's talk, held at a building constructed in 1910, concentrated on the wide disparities in wealth among Mexicans, a prime motivation for the revolution that followed.
The following day, William Tobin, St. Patrick University at Dublin, commented on the significance of urban renewal near the U.S. Capitol following the Civil War and, in particular, the cleanup efforts to eliminate especially crime-ridden areas near the White House.
Barbara Tenenbaum, specialist in Mexican Culture in the Library's Hispanic Division, spoke about Mexico's difficulties in presenting itself to the outside world, noting how over the years it downplayed its Indian heritage. Diana Skvarla, U.S. Senate Commission for the Arts, showed the evolution of Washington as a tourist mecca following the Civil War and the methods used to market the city.
During the final session, Richard Longstreth of George Washington University discussed the development of Washington as a commercial city and its failure to become recognized as such, in part because it never developed the look of other major U.S. cities, with their skyscrapers.
Alejandra Moreno Toscano of the Carmen Toscano Foundation presented a chronology of events of the days when Francisco Madero, Mexico's first post-revolutionary president, entered the capital in 1910. She showed film footage taken by her grandfather, Salvador Toscano, of those events.
Jorge Aguilar Mora, Latin American Studies Center, University of Maryland at College Park, concluded the symposium with a discussion of the installation of new drainage systems for Mexico City, illustrating how decisions taken circa 1910 led to the gradual sinking the city is experiencing today.
