I have always been interested in the world that my parents lived through – the Depression of the 1930s, World War II, and the Cold War. I can’t imagine how terrifying those times of conflict and uncertainty might have been. I have also been inspired by how photography, even imperfectly, can sometimes be a way to transport us back to that time and catch a glimpse of how their lives might have looked and be imagined.
The Library of Congress in Washington, DC is one of the largest libraries in the world and is also the repository of the famous survey of American life called the Farm Security Administration (FSA). It was one of the largest government-sponsored documentary photographic survey projects of all time. The photographs from this collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. Photographers were sent all over the country during the Great Depression mostly documenting the federal government’s efforts to overcome the economic disaster of those hard times. The work continued into WWII under the Office of War Information (OWI). Some of the work also documented American life in a positive way and some of these images were later used as propaganda to counter the rise of fascism before and during WWII and Stalin’s Soviet power during the Cold War afterwards.
Some of my favorite photographers were hired by the FSA including Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Russell Lee, Marion Post Wolcott, Gordon Parks, and Jack Delano. In September 1941, Delano was sent on assignment to record the Tunbridge World’s Fair in the small, rural town of Tunbridge, VT. Because we had just visited this “World’s” Fair with our nephew Bart and his wife Hannah, I decided to look at the Library of Congress’ website to see if there were any photographs by the FSA of Tunbridge. What I discovered was a goldmine of over 300 images by the multi-talented, Ukrainian immigrant named Jack Delano of the Tunbridge Fair. Delano tended to focus on the cultural and social patterns of a place which provided a rich source of visual information for our own interests.
September 1941 was just a few months before the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entering WWII. Europe had been consumed with the war for two years already but when these photos were made, the US was still in the twilight of peace before the disaster of war. I was struck by how few young men appear in these photographs. It is possible that in an agricultural community, many of the young men were off working on the farms and couldn’t get time off to go to the Fair. Another explaination could be that many had already enlisted in the military in the lead up to the war. Of course, we now have the luxury of knowing what happened after September 1941, but I wondered as I looked into the faces of the people in the FSA photographs what were they thinking and feeling as many, even then, feared we would get sucked into the war.
Eighty-two years later, Tunbridge and its Fair are still here and, in many ways unchanged but totally different. Agricultural exhibits still attracted some of the largest crowds as people flocked to see the cows and pigs, chickens and rabbits, and lambs and goats. Another big draw were the pig races which I thought were weird but succeeded in whipping up the audience. The ox-pull also seemed strange but has been in existence since they were first used to clear the rocky soil of Vermont over 200 years ago. The way people dressed also seemed different today than in 1941. Even going to a small, rural fair people tended to dress up and everyone wore hats. Today we wear t-shirts and jeans and are much more casual in our appearance. Our enormous genetically modified corn had been smothered in ground Doritos, mayonnaise and cheese but still tasted delicious. I can only imagine what food was like in 1941 at the Fair. The Vermont Republican Party had a booth containing the usual Trumpy MAGA angry divisiveness. This provided a stark contrast to 1941 when the country faced a true existential threat, and we were led by one of our greatest presidents.
Perhaps the largest change was in the land itself. As I studied the comparative photographs, I was amazed at how open the hills around Tunbridge were in 1941 and how the forests have filled in most of the open spaces today. Changes in land use over the centuries have drastically altered the ecology and it is not coincidental that much of the early thinking about preserving the environment originated in New England. William Cronon’s 1983 book Changes in the Land and, of course, George Perkins Marsh’s 1864 classic book Man and Nature began my understanding of the changes over time of what I was seeing in this part of the world today. I can only imagine what Tunbridge will look like eighty-two years from now.
Stay tuned…
Note: all the black and white photos above are from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. All of those images were made by Jack Delano in September, 1941 in Tunbridge, VT.
I have always been fascinated by the Canadian province of Quebec. Throughout much of the US and Canada, English is the first language of most of the population. Although Canada is officially a bi-lingual country, much of the country speaks English, except in Quebec where a large majority speak French. I was planning on visiting Quebec City for a few days by myself while Ellen visited her sister in Boston. Our son Walker suggested that I travel further north to the outer edge of the densely populated part of Canada to the area bounded by the immense Lac Saint-Jean, the city of Saguenay and the St. Lawrence River. It has the lowest percentage of English-only speakers in Quebec (1%) and is a major center of Quebecois French separatist sentiment.
Walker explained that the area of the US Eastern seaboard all the way up north to the St. Lawrence River in Canada has one of the highest population densities in the world. Just north of the area I was exploring (which is geographically called the Laurentian Highlands or Charlevoix) is the boundary where that high density suddenly flips to one of the most sparsely populated places on earth.
This is the area of the Innu people that are the northernmost Indigenous people (on the East Coast) that are not Eskimo/Inuit who inhabit the far northern parts of Canada. Like on our trip to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories last year, there are no major roads due north of here all the way to the North Pole. It is literally the end of the road.
After an all-day drive I arrived on the shores of Lac-Saint-Jean in the little town of Chambord, QC. I stayed in a heritage site called Val-Jalbert which was originally an early 20th century papermill at the base of the enormous Quiatchouan Falls.
During its heyday, this company town had some enlightened urban planning. Some of the worker’s housing has been converted into beautiful rooms for visitors.
Because there was hardly anyone there and the few people that I met only spoke French, it felt like a strange combination of the Twilight Zone, Colonial Williamsburg, and a drop dead gorgeous Canadian landscape. Over 99% of the people in this region use French as their first language. Even the television in my room was all in French and I wound up watching Madame Doubfire which was a French dubbed version of that great Robin Williams comedy. His genius was physical comedy, and the movie needed no words to make me laugh out loud!
A nearby hydroelectric dam project has recently caused considerable protest from some of the residents and the Indigenous Innu people. In 2013, five Innu barricaded themselves inside two sky cabins which served as a lift for tourists to access the top of the falls. All were arrested that day. Coming from the arid American West where water is what people fight over, it was fascinating to see these issues played out in this part of the world.
I was curious what libraries would be like in this Quebecois/Native part of Canada. Like many buildings in this northern Canadian landscape, the Chambord public library was austere but appropriate for this former frontier community.
The Municipal Library in the remote village of Saint-Edmond-Les-Plaines was one of the most interesting of the trip. The young, English-speaking librarian who wore a suit and had a long beard explained that he came from Montreal with his wife who was a teacher. This library was part of a satellite system of rural libraries that served the most underserved in the remote villages of this region. When they first opened this branch there were some people that came to the library who were illiterate, and the library helped them to learn how to read.
Between libraries, I had to make a pilgrimage to La Chocolaterie-des-Pères Trappistes de Mistassini. This unique Trappist monastery in a very remote place featured a variety of monk made chocolate including their pièce de résistance of fresh wild blueberries covered in dark chocolate. Yum!
The library in the small village of L’Ascension-de-Notre-Seigneur stood out because of an Indigenous teepee structure in the window and two very large towers looming behind the library. As I was checking my directions when I was about to leave, two boys around the age of 11 came over and asked if I needed help. Surprisingly, they both spoke some English and when I showed my phone, they both shouted GPS! I realized this probably would never happen in a big city.
The Hélène-Pedneault Library in Jonquière near the city of Saguenay was a beautiful, modern structure that stood in contrast to all the tiny libraries I had been photographing today. I only spent a short time there because I had a long way to go before reaching my motel on the St. Lawrence. As the sun was setting, I spent many hours driving on the edge of the spectacular Réserve faunique des Laurentides listening to podcasts and soaking in the landscape.
Arriving on the edge of the St. Lawrence River after dark was breathtaking. My motel Auberge des 3 Canards was situated on a high bluff. While I was looking down across the river there appeared a massive moon rising above the water and clouds. The 3 Ducks was a spectacular place to rest my weary bones.
This area is known as Charlevoix and is on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River as well as in the Laurentian Mountains of the Canadian Shield. This dramatic landscape includes rolling terrain, fjords, headlands, and bays; this beautiful region was designated a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1989. The area also includes the Charlevoix impact structure, which is a huge, eroded meteorite crater with only part exposed at the surface, the rest lying beneath the St. Lawrence River.
The 2018 G7 economic summit was held here in the town of La Malbaie where I was staying. The Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu hosted the event partly because of its natural beauty and security. “One road in, one road out”. It was also where then-President Trump was typically out of his league, insulted other leaders, and generally made a famous mess of the whole summit. The French later dubbed it the “G6 + 1”. I made a special visit to this grand old hotel to see the scene of the crime and heard all the golfers shouting to each other in French. Bon temps!
The Laure-Conan Library in La Malbaie was beautiful and modern and situated on a bluff overlooking the St. Lawrence. I had first seen it featured in the famous architecture blog ArchDaly. It certainly lived up to its reputation.
After many hours, I arrived in the urban sprawl of Quebec City coming to the Félix-Leclerc Library. It was in a real working-class neighborhood far from the touristy old town of Quebec City. Here, huge pickup trucks with loud mufflers ruled the road as I frantically scooted our tiny Prius between the big wheels and loud stereo systems of the locals. I photographed the exterior of the beautiful library but as I made a quick exit, I got caught in rush hour, gridlocked traffic.
Later that night as I visited the old town, all of today’s crazy experiences made me better appreciate the tranquil beauty of the old medieval French village that started here over 400 years ago.
I visited the last library of this trip-within-our-larger-trip to another outer edge of Quebec City. The Fernand-Dumont Library was situated in an old, repurposed church. The librarian explained that it was the smallest public library in Quebec City, and it was housed in a part of what had been an impressive French-Canadian Catholic church. It also reflected the trend I had seen earlier of large numbers of people here abandoning the Church and the buildings becoming used for other purposes such as libraries.
On my last blog, we finished our journey exploring the libraries and complexities of Mexico. This new series of blogs will explore the libraries and culture of three different countries. But first, we start with our annual pilgrimage to our little cabin in the woods in Vermont.
At the beginning of August, before we left San Francisco, our son Walker and his friend Nick began driving our Prius on a camping trip across the northern US and Canada. They canoed and camped on their journey across the northern woods, eventually winding up in New England.
At the same time, back in San Francisco, we were fortunate to begin hosting a Fulbright Exchange student from Russia named Daria. She will be staying with us for a year, and we look forward to getting to know this remarkable, brave young woman who had to leave Putin’s Russia a year ago with her husband and her cat. The few days with her was spent showing the sites of our beautiful city during the month we call Fogust.
On the day we flew across country with Nick’s wife Thais and Walker’s girlfriend Rosa, we met Walker and Nick at our cabin in Vermont. It was great to be there with them all and a few days later they helped celebrate my 73rd birthday.
It is always a shock to travel from California to Vermont. I’m not used to green and humidity. The massive rain and snowfall we had this winter helped pull California out of a crippling multi-year drought. But Vermont also had a huge amount of rain this summer which resulted in wide-spread flooding and lots of damage.
Much of the time here was spent chilling, watching the grass grow, and marveling at all the little creatures of the Vermont woods crawling around. Even the mushrooms are exotic and grow everywhere in this forest that covers almost 80% of the state.
Vermont lies within an interesting biological transition zone between the northern boreal forests and the southern deciduous forests. Over 80% is privately owned but only 1% is owned by businesses. Our place is shared by three families and has been managed by Ellen’s brother John. We helped a little when we are here such as digging ditches to save the trails in this very wet year. But John and his daughter Phoebe do most of the hard work. One day we took an epic Gator ride with John to the top of his adjacent property. Because of the recent rains, the trail was squishy, the sky was close, and a soft mist covered the trees. We saw close ups of deer and wild turkeys in this crazy, beautiful place.
After far too short of a visit, Walker and Rosa and friends had to go back to San Francisco. After a short stop in SF, Walker continued on to do a story for CBS News on the recent, devastating fires in Maui, Hawaii. Altogether, he traveled 17 hours to go to work. Tough commute!
I had no idea when I started photographing libraries in 1994 that I had stumbled upon a perfect way to travel the world, help us understand what we were seeing, and develop a way to advocate for the common good. Little did I know that studying dusty old books could be so exciting. And that libraries are, indeed, very noisy places filled with exciting and often raucous arguments between writers sometimes stretching back to our distant past. Or where the social issues of a given time get played out such as segregation in the past or book banning in our present. No matter how our current crisis of censorship and libraries gets resolved, libraries have proved to be an essential part of any healthy society. As Bill Moyers wrote in his introduction for my 2014 book The Public Library: A Photographic Essay “when a library is open, no matter its size or shape, democracy is open too.”
We went to Mexico to use libraries to try to learn some essential truths about this fascinating and complicated place. Because of its much older history, libraries in Mexico seemed to share more with their European counterparts than with American libraries. Of the libraries that we visited; one important function was to safeguard the deep inheritance from Mexican history. Ancient books and manuscripts were everywhere and highly valued by many libraries. As in Europe, protecting this history was paramount and access for the public was less important.
Another significant and unique aspect of Mexican libraries was to feature the work of the famous 20th century Mexican muralists. Everywhere we traveled we saw stunning examples of the work of Diego Rivera, Juan O’Gorman, Orozco, Siqueiros., Morado, etc. Besides the startling visuals of these artists, the political message was often socialist or communist with idealized images of Stalin or Mao and stridently anti-capitalist messages. History today often views Stalin and Mao as genocidal mass-murders. But these often-angry polemical artistic masterpieces fit well into the cacophony of ideas that makes for a healthy library.
Another common theme we discovered in Mexican libraries was the commons itself. Certain private libraries in Oaxaca or San Miguel de Allende had great community outreach with a dizzying array of classes, workshops, studios, bookstores, etc. that made the libraries a source of community pride. We saw how these libraries worked hard to remain necessary and relevant to their communities. Funding for public libraries has been a struggle partly because of Mexico’s low productivity rate and low rate of people paying taxes. Since the revolution, education has always been important but vast income inequality makes it hard for the poor to access the resources that the wealthy take for granted. Libraries are only a part of this problem.
On this last trip of the larger Mexican Library Road trip, we were accompanied by our son Walker and his girlfriend Rosa. Both speak Spanish and Rosa is from Mexico. As with our last trip to Oaxaca and Puebla with Rosa’s mother and sister, we were well taken care of on this part of our journey. We headed west to the Spanish colonial town of Morelia. This beautifully preserved city is a well-deserved UNESCO World Heritage site with elegant 16th and 17th century stone buildings with baroque facades and graceful archways. Lots of foreigners come to learn Spanish or Mexican cooking but, up to now, relatively few come as tourists.
The Biblioteca Pública de la Universidad Michoacana in Morelia is housed in an extraordinary 17th former church. The treasurers from the archive spoke to the long history of this place. A statue of Cervantes in a dark corner next to a 1950s mural was unsettling and beautiful. The highlight of our visit came when Rosa discovered a book written by her long-ago great, great grandfather who was historically important in the development of Mexican law.
Our next stop was the small adobe-and-cobblestone town of Pátzcuaro. Built in 1576, the Augustine Convent of Pátzcurao originally consisted of a church and cloister. Today, it is the Gertrudis Bocanegra Public Library, adorned with a mural painted in the 1940s by Irish Mexican artist Juan O’Gorman, and is now an important cultural center of Pátzcuaro. The astonishing mural depicts the indigenous Purépecha cosmogony, their way of life, the bloody Spanish conquest, and life after the conquest. Bocanegra was a martyred hero of the Mexican War of Independence in the early 1800s and we saw her image throughout the town.
On our way to Guadalajara, we stopped at the impressive Tzintzuntzan Archeological site. It consists of five semicircular reconstructed temples which are all that remain of the once-mighty, ancient Purépecha empire. No one was here which helped intensify our feeling of mystery and wonder.
Our next stop was the Octavio Paz Iberoamerican Library in the large city of Guadalajara. It is housed in a building originally built in 1591 as a Jesuit school. In 1792, it became the first site of the University of Guadalajara. It was dedicated as the Octavio Paz Library in 1991 during the first Iberoamerican Summit meeting and includes distinctive murals by Mexican artist Siqueiros. The library collection largely comprises works by Latin American and Spanish scholars and is a celebration of Spanish language literature, writing, and culture.
We were given the greatest possible welcome at the Juan José Arreola Library at the University of Guadalajara because we were accompanied by Rosa. Her father had worked in the Mexican government and helped direct money to fund the library. And the library has named a section of law books after her great great grandfather. The wonderful reception started with a large gathering of staff and the director where Rosa served as our much-needed translator. We were then given a guided tour of every section of this large library by enthusiastic librarians and archivists. We were taken to see the newspaper library, the map library and even a library for the blind. As we were leaving, we saw a sobering exhibit of animal sculptures made from weapons taken by the police from the Mexican cartels which are an ongoing problem in this part of the country. After one of our best meals in Mexico at an innovative, corn-based restaurant called Xokol, we came back to the library in the evening to photograph the fabulous exterior.
One of my favorite cities in Mexico was the former mining town of Guanajuato. It is another extraordinary UNESCO World Heritage city which was founded by the Spanish in 1559. I was stunned by its geography and blown away by its vibrant culture. The city’s main roads twist around the hillsides and plunge into long dank subterranean tunnels that were formerly rivers and mining tunnels. Walking around the city was like living in a 3D MC Escher drawing. It is a colorful and lively place with surprises around every corner and a youthful energy provided by live musical performances everywhere. We even came upon a Lucha libre theater group doing an improv performance accompanied by a rock band in costume playing to a rapturous audience. In another place we came upon three live mariachi bands all playing at the same time. I kept muttering over and over to myself “this is crazy!” and loving every minute of it. It all had a fascinating edge and I noticed that the crowd was almost all Mexican and not foreigners.
The Armando Olivares Library is part of the University of Guanajuato. It contains some of the most valuable treasures of bibliographic archives in the country. One doesn’t need to be a specialized researcher to access the archive, just have the restlessness for knowledge. We were given a remarkable tour by a gifted librarian/professor. What I thought would be a short visit fortunately stretched out over several hours as we asked every question we could think of about local and Mexican history. The depth of the collection and the interesting architecture made this one of the biggest surprises of the trip.
The rest of our time in Guanajuato was way too short as we tried to soak up all this incredible, exciting, and beautiful place. No doubt, we will be back.
On our way to our next stop, we visited the place where Miguel Hidalgo proclaimed Mexican Independence in 1810. It was a deep dive into Mexican history, and I was fascinated by Hidalgo’s book collection. I realized that I didn’t know much about this history but visiting some of the sites where the history had happened made me want to know more about this endlessly fascinating subject.
The Public Library of San Miguel de Allende is a non-profit organization that has been in existence for 65 years. It is an incredible place that provides educational and cultural activities in a community center that includes a lending library, bookstore, skills training, painting and ceramics studios, etc. in a safe environment for a multi-generational and multi-cultural community. On the day we visited, it was a beehive of activity, and I admired the incredible energy of the overworked staff and volunteers.
The beautiful city of San Miguel de Allende is one of Mexico’s biggest tourist attractions and includes a large population of Americans who either live full time in the town or have winter homes here. The town is also a UNESCO World Heritage site despite receiving huge numbers of visitors. Although they were both Spanish colonial mining towns, the contrast between here and Guanajuato is large. I preferred the edgy charm of Guanajuato but came to really like San Miguel as well. We had an incredible dinner with old friends of Ellen who have permanently settled here after leaving Colorado. As we were leaving the next day, I photographed the municipal public library which was closed on Sunday.
On our way to our next stop, we visited the fascinating and mysterious Archeological Site of Tula. It was the Mesoamerican capital of the Toltec Empire, but little is known about it. When we arrived, lighting bolts were hitting the distant peaks with a storm heading our way. We reluctantly kept our visit short and made a quick dash for our car before the rain began. All the ancient sites that we visited on this trip brought more questions than answers. Hopefully, this deep dive into ancient and more recent Mexican history will continue in our future.
The last city on our Mexican Library Road Trip was the rapidly growing city of Querétaro. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the northern hemisphere thanks to a booming aerospace and technologies industry. It has an old colonial center which may someday be made more attractive for the tourist industry. Querétaro does possess some striking examples of urban sprawl and bad traffic. We couldn’t help talking about JB Jackson and other urban theorists. and wondered what they would say about what we were seeing. After seeing so many towns from Mexico’s past, it was startling to see in Querétaro a possible future. It wasn’t pretty, but the optimism and faith in the future here was positive even as we wondered about the environmental consequences of a boom town exploding across an arid landscape. Unfortunately, we have seen plenty of examples of this dilemma before in the American West.
As we were leaving Querétaro the next morning, we discovered a library on the edge of town that is housed in a line of old railroad cars and in an old train station. It was really struggling and the private funding for its only computers and Wi-Fi setup had dried up. Because of the finicky nature of private funding and lack of government support, this poor part of a suddenly prosperous region will probably remain poor until something changes. Here was where hope can die on the raggedy edge of the sparkling boom town of Querétaro.
We arrived back in Mexico City inspired but very tired from our month-long journey. But we had one more library to visit. The Mapoteca is a map library that is maintained by the Cartography Department of the Federal Government. The archive contains a valuable technical collection including more than 5,000 files and field notebooks dating from 1860 to 1970 relating to topography, astronomy, geodesics, etc. Because of our passion for geography, we were like kids in a candy store as we dashed from one exciting discovery to the next. The enthusiastic staff gave us a remarkably well-curated presentation of the treasurers of this unique place.
We could not have done this trip without the support of Rosa and her remarkable family – Paulina and Ana. They fed us, housed us, and were our traveling companions during different parts of this trip. We are forever indebted to them for their generosity, kindness, and wisdom. Abrazos!
On our flight home, I was fortunate to sit next to a man from Mexico who was flying back to his home in the Bay Area. He explained how he had emigrated to the US, worked hard for many years in the medical industry in Palo Alto and eventually bought a home in Modesto. After we landed in San Francisco he added “America is the place where dreams can still come true.” As we deplaned, I was still choked up by the wisdom of this quiet, soft-spoken Mexican man.
I took my last photo of the trip of Ellen entering US Customs under a huge sign stating, “Welcome to the United States of America.” In the distance there appeared to be a huge crowd cheering her on. As Walker later said about this photo “this is Ellen making it to the finish line and winning the race.” There’s no place like home.
In the next few weeks, I will be sending out one more blog post of the greatest hits of images from my Nikon from the trip. Until then…
The culture of Mexico is astonishing – deep, rich, and complicated. The past is present here and the complex blending of cultures over a long period of time have created something unique. We were able to experience this place during this week through a kaleidoscopic range of libraries. But one of the other ways we experienced Mexican culture was through its world-class cuisine. I realized that Mexican food in the US is a pale imitation of what we have eaten here. Mexican libraries and Mexican food were our guides as we took a deep dive into a place we barely know.
Our human guides for the week were Walker’s girlfriend’s mother Paulina and Paulina’s other daughter Ana. We were so lucky to have such smart, talented, and extremely well-informed woman to travel with us on our journey to Oaxaca and Puebla.
Before we left Mexico City, we spent our last day packing, doing laundry, getting organized, and seeing the sights of our hipster neighborhood.
I drove the seven hours to Oaxaca and got a quick lesson on navigating Mexica roads. Getting out of Mexico City was a nightmare, but once we hit the open road we were dazzled by volcanoes, pine forests, and an openness we didn’t experience while we were back in CDMX. I never understood the attraction of Oaxaca but once we arrived, I became an instant convert. At a large gathering in a little park, we came upon a huge group of children listening to a young boy dressed up in traditional attire belting out songs. Nearby, was a small bookmobile that drew in the kids attracted by the music. Smart way of getting young people to read. It was sponsored by a group called Libros Para Pueblos that purchase and distribute children’s books to more than 60 communities throughout the state of Oaxaca.
Oaxaca is known for its great textiles and art and were amazed by what we saw all around us. We even stumbled upon a small children’s library that was full of playful kids. The local market was delightful and here for first time I encountered the variety of mole this area is famous for throughout the world. That night at dinner, I indulged my passion for mole by having the mole sampler plate. I also tried the local insect sampler plate. Delicious!
The archeological site Monte Alban towers about the Valley of Oaxaca and traces its roots back to 500 BCE. It lasted 1,300 years but was abandoned long before the Spanish arrived in the 1520s. It is one of Mexico’s most culturally rich archeological sites, with the remains of temples, palaces, tall, stepped platforms, and observatory and a ball court where the losers had their hearts cut out. We were blowen away but the beauty of the place and thankful by the relatively nice weather and lack of the tour bus circus that is common to sites like this.
Oaxaca is a complex but intensely attractive city whose majestic churches and refined plazas have deservedly earned it a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The gorgeous Templo de Santa Domingo is the most splendid of Oaxaca’s churches with a finely carved baroque exterior and an interior with intricately carved relief gilt designs swirling around a profusion of painted figures.
Our Air B&B in Oaxaca was centrally located, tiny, with the toilet located in the shower. But it was a perfect place to come home to at the end of a long day.
We needed that comfort as we attempted to do five libraries in one day. In the US, we don’t do much to observe International Workers Day of May 1st. But in Mexico on May 1st, everything is closed so I had to jam all our Oaxacan libraries into May 2nd. Several libraries stood out including the Burgoa Library. It contains an important collection that was almost destroyed but has now been rescued and is housed in old convent. In 2018 it was recognized as a Memory of the World of Mexico by UNESCO. The Juan de Córdova Research Library is in a beautifully redone 16th Century convent, now a community center and library. It contains a deep collection on Oaxacan anthropology and history. The most unusual library was the Oaxacan Lending Library. It is a non-profit, membership library that contains a community and events center. It was started, in part, by American ex-pats and helped by the US Embassy.
Our long day was capped off by an exquisite dinner on a roof-top restaurant called the Casa Oaxaca. I had one of my best meals in Mexico here. I enjoyed, of course, the chicken mole, a must when dining in Oaxaca.
The second big destination on our week-long trip was to the old city of Puebla. Founded by Spanish settlers in 1531 it quickly grew into a conservative Catholic religious center with over 70 churches in the historic center alone. It also flourished as a center for pottery, glass, and textiles. We arrived from our long drive from Oaxaca and headed straight for the Lafragua Library. It contains the largest and most diverse ancient collection in the State of Puebla and is one of the most important in Mexico. It is beautifully located in an ancient former Jesuit building that holds two 16th century codices: the Sierra-Texupan codex and the Yanhuitlán codex. We arrived just a large group of students were being shown some of the treasures of the archive. Their enthusiasm and cell phone photos of the ancient priceless artifacts was a delight. Our librarian-guide was also brilliant and insightful as we took on a private tour of a great place.
The streets of Puebla were also fascinating, especially for its architecture and restaurants.
Our second library was one of the most historic in Mexico. Founded in 1646, the Biblioteca Palafoxiana was the first public library in the Americas. For this, it has been listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register. It houses thousands of rare books on its gorgeous shelves, including one of the earliest New World dictionaries and the 1493 Nuremburg Chronicle, with more than 2000 engravings. I was deeply moved by being in presence of such history and beauty. But after the excitement of the students at the Lafaugua, the Palafoxiana felt like a beautiful fossil, rather than a living library. Something to behold, rather than to be used.
Coming back into Mexico City was to re-enter a global city rather than the smaller, slower-paced towns we had just been visiting. We also reunited with Walker and Rosa at Paulina’s house. Paulina even provided a facial and pedicure for Ellen and all the world-weary travelers assembled under her roof. The pedicure felt great! Walker and I then went for a power walk in various neighborhoods such as Roma and Coyacan. I even spotted a small, plain branch library named after the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes.
On our final day in Mexico City before our next trip, we got up very early and drove to one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhood of Iztapala. Here was a library in a jet airliner in a dangerous, druggy area that was put there to counter the crime and hopelessness. Iztapalapa remains afflicted by high levels of economic deprivation, and a significant number of its residents lack access to clean drinking water. Iztapalapa has one of the highest rates of violent crime in Mexico City and combatting homicides and drug trafficking remain a major issue for local authorities. A sign in front of the jet airliner/library read “Careful! Machismo Kills Always!” referred to the high level of violence against women. The library was a stunning example of when libraries can be a positive force for social change.
We ended our long day by visiting the Central Library of UNAM, the largest and most prestigious public university in Mexico. I had run into a bureaucratic dead-end in trying to get permission to photograph this library, so we decided to just show up, take our chances, and just photograph the stunning exterior. Coincidentally, we happen to show up on graduation day where the grounds around the library was filled with recent graduates and happy families. My photographs captured some of that unique joy of graduation and the wonderful closeness of Mexican families. The huge unique mural covering the outside is considered an iconic masterpiece and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Next week is our last road trip within our Mexico Library Road Trip when we head west to Guadalajara and other cities and towns. Stay tuned…
We spent an exhilarating and exhausting week hustling ourselves all over Mexico City photographing libraries. For some bizarre reason, the ride share company Uber decided to terminate our app this week without any explanation. We had committed some unspeakable crime against their corporate sensibilities, and we are now perhaps banned for life. Probably this came about because we never used their app back home in San Francisco, and we didn’t fit the profile of a profitable customer. So, we switched over to a Chinese app called Didi Drive.
The sensual experiences of Mexico City can be a little overwhelming. The sights, tastes, smells, and sounds seemed to be intensified. We also had a little difficulty breathing because of the higher elevation and bad air pollution. This was amplified by insanely gridlocked traffic and the rule by the Mexican government that all taxis had to leave their windows opened all the time because of Covid. While sitting in the heat in our Didi ride-share while the traffic was stopped with the car exhaust pouring through the windows, the question did occur “is this worth it”? But once we arrived at all these marvelous libraries the answer was “Of course”!
The food here is some of the best in the world. One librarian explained some of the reason why both Mexico and Peru have such world-class cuisine. Both cultures are truly a blend of the Indigenous Mexican cultures with the Spanish in Mexico and the Incan culture with the Spanish in Peru producing a unique blend of people and their fascinating food.
Because of the pollution, my sense of smell tended to shut down at times. But I will always remember the exciting smells of the food the flowers, and the intense smells of the city. It is not for the faint of heart, but is a robust expression of a city unlike any place that I have been. After the initial shock, one accepts Mexico City as it is.
The strongest sensual experience from this week in Mexico City was of sound. Every cab driver had his music cranked way up. As we traveled the city, we toured a wide range of music from really bad pop music to Spanish-language hip-hop, to beautiful corridoes. The organ grinders were everywhere on the street playing a type of instrument imported in the 19th century from Germany. We also listened to endless Spanish-language talk shows. At one point, in the cacophony of words, I heard a familiar voice speaking in English about “fighting to save the soul of America”. It turned out to be Joe Biden announcing his next run for re-election. Go Joe! It seemed that every shop we walked by had loud sparkling music booming from inside. At night, when we were trying to sleep, I heard even louder music coming from a nearby café. In my half-dream state just as I was about to pass out, I sometimes heard the voices of what sounded like young people chanting, screaming, and having a really good time. The strangest sound came a truck with a loudspeaker that seemed to be driving all over Mexico City. It was blaring out a recording of a woman offering to buy or sell your stuff. Her voice sounded sad, tired, and persistent and I wondered who she was and what her real life was like.
Like the food, the libraries we visited this week were mostly world-class. We started with one of the best at the world-famous National Library of Anthropology and History. We were shocked and honored to spend an hour with the Director of the entire museum, Balthazar Brito Guadarrama. He had just returned from doing work verifying Aztec codices at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. His generosity and personality made me feel that our crazy quest for visiting libraries in Mexico was really worth it. The next library was completely different. The library of the Mexican-Jewish Documentation and Research Center housed the records of Jewish immigration into Mexico, mostly in the 20th century. It was housed in an old synagogue and contained a fascinating history which was brought alive by the librarian Charlie. Even though he didn’t speak English and we spoke little Spanish, somehow, we understood each other and felt we had become friends.
The next day we visited the Biblioteca Miguel Lerdo de Tejada. In 1970 the library moved to the main nave of the old 18th century San Felipe Neri “El Nuevo” Oratory. In 1982 the Russian Mexican artist Vlady created huge, spectacular murals that dominated the main reading room. Our next stop was the massive City of Books which is a project by Federal government to create libraries of famous Mexican writers and publishers. It is housed in a large one-block area with six new starchitect-designed libraries for the writers along with wonderful reading rooms, libraries for the blind, public libraries, and a bookstore. It was truly an inspiring place!
The next morning was a visit to the huge Vasconcelos Library. It is a large beautiful underutilized urban library plagued by budget cuts which opened in 2008. Surrounded botanical gardens, it contains the skeleton of a large whale that dominates the massive interior space. Next stop was the Library of the Congress of Mexico. The building was originally part of a Poor Clares convent founded in the 16th century. Today it houses Mexico’s records of its legislature since Independence. We then traveled on to the Library of Mexican Gastronomy which is part of the Hendez Foundation. It contained the history of Mexican cooking, mostly in the form of old cookbooks and a small museum.
The National Library of Mexico Reserved Fund is located on the campus of UNAM, the largest and most respected of Mexico’s public universities. It is one of the largest libraries in Mexico and Latin America. As a National Library, it is the preeminent bibliographic repository of Mexico and is subject to legal deposit. In addition to the Special Collections, it includes the National Library of Mexico, National Newspaper Library of Mexico, and the Institute of Bibliographic Research. We were shown a tiny slice of their rare book and manuscript collection by the head librarian Dr. Manuel Rivera. His knowledge of Mexican history was staggering, and I struggled to ask him every question I could think of about this country that he knew so well. His youth and hip appearance went against the stereotype of librarians being old and stuffy. The depth of his knowledge and his enthusiasm for sharing with us made it hard to leave what had become one of the highlights of the trip. We pulled ourselves away and finished the day at the Library of the Revolutions of the Revolutions of Mexico. It is housed in the beautiful neo-classical House of the Two Patios with displays to Revolutionary memory.
Finally, by Friday, we were a little road weary but took another Didi to CEHM – Centro Estoria de Mexico which housed the private book collection of the Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, one of the rich men in the world. We have wanted to be as inclusive as possible with our definition of what is a library and this collection seemed appropriate. No surprise, because of Slim’s wealth it turned out to house some incredible items. The people working here were also doing a great job to preserve and copy the rare books and manuscripts.
We ended the day once again exhausted but happy to have seen such great work. The great puzzle of Mexican libraries was becoming a bit clearer after our frantic week of travel around Mexico City. Next week we visit the beautiful historic cities of Oaxaca and Puebla and photograph some of the most important libraries in the Western Hemisphere. Stay tuned…
On our free day before the conference, we explored Mexico City with Walker’s girl friend’s mother Paulina. We began by exploring the homes of two very different personalities of 1930s Mexico – Frieda Kahlo and Leon Trotsky. Her parents were Oaxacan-Hungarian and Kahlo was raised here. She later became a celebrity artist and feminist icon. Her husband Diego Rivera was one of the most celebrated artists of his day and in this Casa Azul, they shared a tempestuous relationship in the heady revolutionary, intellectual, artistic world of their time. A few blocks away is the home of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky who fled here in 1937 after he lost the leadership of the Soviet Union to Josef Stalin. Stalin had him murdered in this house in 1940 and the ghosts of that tempestuous time were seen throughout this compound. Of particular interest to me was Trotsky’s library.
South of here is Anahuacalli which was designed by Diego Rivera to house his collection of pre-Hispanic art. This museum is a temple-like structure made of volcanic stones which also contains one of Rivera’s studios and lots of artistically inspired details.
The ARLIS conference of Art Librarians from throughout North America was a good event made up of mostly fascinating people which we enjoyed meeting. We knew a few people that we had met before but mostly we made new friends and connected with archivists. We may have even sold a few of our American and Global Library albums that we had on display at the conference. We attended several excellent talks and went to some receptions including one in an old 16th century former convent and later the home of Franz Meyer with an amazing private library.
We walked the historic streets of the Colonia Centro as much as possible where I had the best mole I’ve ever tasted, rested our weary feet at a cathedral built by the conquistadors on top of the main Aztec temple, and marveled at the depth of history and culture in this amazing city. One highlight of our wanderings was visiting the building where the first printing press in the Western Hemisphere was set up in 1539.
One of the highlights for anyone visiting Mexico City is going to the National Museum of Anthropology. This is a world-class museum of Mesoamerica, and we were overwhelmed and blown away by the best display of Native America that we have ever seen. It contained far more than our tired minds could absorb, but fortunately we will return next week to photograph the Museum’s National Library. As we were leaving, we witnessed an amazing performance by indigenous Totonac people performing their spectacular voladores rite – “flying” from a 20m-high pole.
Dinner with new and old Mexican friends was another highlight from this week in Mexico City. But strolling the streets are really the best way to begin to understand this very walkable and remarkable place.
After months of preparation and research, we finally left San Francisco flying to Mexico City. The plane was mostly filled with excited librarians heading to Mexico’s capitol for a conference of Art Librarians called ARLIS. California was in its glory and after all the rain we saw whole parts of the state covered with brilliantly colored wildflowers. Even from our lofty perch I was surprised by the beauty we saw. As we headed over the San Joaquin Valley, we witnessed something remarkable. Far off in the distance was the full length of the Sierra Nevada living up to their name thickly covered in brilliant white snow. And in the foreground was the re-emerging Tulare Lake which had been drained dry for agriculture years ago. The results of this year’s Biblical rain and snow was stunning to see from our plane of happy librarians.
After a great flight we had a great dinner with Walker’s friend Rosa and her sister Ana and mother Paulina. It was nice to arrive in Mexico among friends.
Part of our first day here was getting ready for the rest of the trip. Permissions to photograph were still coming in. Scheduling had to be set up. Logistics had to be arranged. We finally headed out into the streets in search of libraries and all things Mexican. The Postal Palace Library was our quirky first stop. It was built in 1907 and housed the most remarkable Post Office building that I have ever seen and is dedicated to all things Postal. We then walked by the Library of the Congress of Mexico which I had just received permission to photograph the interior earlier this morning. The building was originally part of a Poor Clares convent founded in the 16th century, but the outside was covered with graffiti today.
We continued down Tacuba Street and was surprised by the large number of bookstores and camera stores on this street. We quickly fell in love with the richness and depth of Mexican culture in this remarkable place. We eventually came upon the Templo Mayor which is vast archeological site in middle of the city. Here the long history of Mexico comes alive. We went through the doors of another remarkable bookstore and had late lunch at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Aztec ruins and the cathedral literally built by Cortez on top of their civilization.
The historic Zócalo is one of the largest central plazas of any city in the world. We strolled through this space at sunset and was impressed by the large number of local people enjoying themselves with their families in the beautiful light. Walking back to our hotel gave us even more reason to appreciate and want to know more about this remarkable place.
Ellen Manchester and I are happy to announce the recent purchase of 660 images from our Global Library Project by the Library of Congress for their permanent collection. This is in addition to their 2015 purchase of my American Public Library project archive. We will be continuing our Global Library work in Mexico starting this Sunday, April 16th. We will be traveling for over a month from Oaxaca to Guadalajara researching, photographing libraries, and enjoying the fabulous Mexican food. And we will be posting about our trip from the road on Facebook and on this blog “Library Road Trip.” Please join us for the ride.
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division.
In celebration of National Library Week (April 23-29, 2023), please take a moment to enjoy a brand new acquisition in the Prints & Photographs Division – “The Global Library Project” by master photographer Robert Dawson. The theme of National Library Week is “There’s More to the Story,” which is the perfect description for Dawson’s work.
From 1994 to 2015, Dawson photographed more than 500 public libraries throughout the United States, often traveling more than 11,000 miles at a time on summer road trips with his son Walker Dawson. The images document the wide range of America’s public libraries in locations ranging from big cities to small towns, shopping malls to national parks.
In 2016, Dawson and his family expanded their journey to include libraries worldwide. In Dawson’s own words, “The Global Library Project seeks to document the important role of public libraries throughout the world in engaging and supporting an informed citizenry.”
The Library of Congress has purchased 660 born-digital photographs that show people using libraries and the remarkably varied architecture of libraries in 11 Western and Eastern European countries and Israel.
The Dawsons are currently photographing libraries in Mexico and plan to show more of the story of libraries in Central and South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania.
See some photographs from Public Library: An American Commons Photographic Survey by Robert Dawson, 1995-2013 (Collection at the Library of Congress)
Look at images from the Global Library Project : Photographic Survey by Robert Dawson, until more of the photographs are added to the Library’s own online catalog (External website)
I'm photographer Robert Dawson. Join me and my son, Walker, as we drive across the country this summer photographing public libraries for my next book, due out in 2013. Our trip will complete 17 years of field work documenting this precious American resource.
For more on my work and my upcoming American Public Library photography book, please visit robertdawson.com.
Library Road Trip 