Briquet, Granat, and Waite Album of Commercial Photographs of Mexico City and Its Environs
Collection
Identifier: 2020-005
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of one photographic album containing fifty-eight black-and-white commercial photographs of turn of the century Mexico taken by three photographers: Abel Briquet, Jacob Granat, and Charles Betts Waite. While many of the images depict the architecture and street scenes of Mexican cities, they primarily show the Mexican people performing jobs in various locales. In addition to the images depicting cities and people, there are several striking photographs of the Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl mountains, as well as other scenes depicting the natural environment.
Dates
- circa 1890s-1905
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Due to the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to certain materials may require additional advance notice.
Conditions Governing Use
Researchers are responsible for using the materials in conformance with United States copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any copyright claimants in collection materials. Copyright for official University records is held by The University of Alabama. The library claims only physical ownership of many manuscript collections. Anyone wishing to broadcast or publish this material must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of literary property rights or copyrights. Please contact Special Collections (archives@ua.edu) with questions regarding specific manuscript collections.
For more information about copyright policy, please visit: https://www.ua.edu/copyright/. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals without the consent of those individuals may have legal implications, for which the University of Alabama assumes no responsibility.
For more information about copyright policy, please visit: https://www.ua.edu/copyright/. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals without the consent of those individuals may have legal implications, for which the University of Alabama assumes no responsibility.
Biographical / Historical
Charles Betts (C. B.) Waite was an American photographer born in Akron, Ohio, on December 19, 1861. Waite was active during the turn of the century and is best known for his images of the American Southwest and Mexico. Around 1881, when Waite was twenty, he moved to southern California while working for Henry Ellis Coonley taking photographs of landscapes around the San Diego area. These images appeared in a magazine titled Land of Sunshine, which led to commissions with railroad companies to capture similar landscape images of Arizona and New Mexico. In 1897, Waite moved to Mexico City and established his own studio where he continued to take landscape images of the Mexican countryside, as well as Mexican city-life and images of the upper-class, including President Porfirio Diaz's inner circle. Waite lived in Mexico, regularly travelling back to the United States, until 1923, when his wife, Alice Cooley Waite, died. He moved to Los Angeles, California, and lived there until his death on March 22, 1927.
Abel Briquet, also known as Alfred Briquet, was a French photographer born December 30, 1833. He practiced and taught photography in France but closed his studio in 1865 for unknown reasons. At some point between 1865 and 1876 he immigrated to Mexico, where he is believed to be one of the first commercial photographers in Mexico. He received a commission to photograph the Mexican National Railway between Veracruz and Mexico City in 1876, and opened his own studio in 1885.
Jacob Granat was born in 1871 in Lemberg (today Lviv), a city in Western Ukraine, at the time part of the Austrian empire. Little is known about Jacob Granat as a photographer, with at least one historian speculating that he outsourced his images, with some possibly taken by Guillermo Kahlo, and that Granat was merely the distributor of the images. Granat moved to Mexico in 1900, setting up a shop selling luggage and souvenirs in Mexico City. In 1906, Jacob Granat sold his shop and opened the first movie theater in the city, Salon Rojo. In June 1912, he was one of the founders, and the first president, of the first Jewish charitable organization in Mexico, Alianza Beneficencia Monte Sinai. He sold his theater and moved to Austria in the 1920s. He died at Auschwitz in 1943.
Abel Briquet, also known as Alfred Briquet, was a French photographer born December 30, 1833. He practiced and taught photography in France but closed his studio in 1865 for unknown reasons. At some point between 1865 and 1876 he immigrated to Mexico, where he is believed to be one of the first commercial photographers in Mexico. He received a commission to photograph the Mexican National Railway between Veracruz and Mexico City in 1876, and opened his own studio in 1885.
Jacob Granat was born in 1871 in Lemberg (today Lviv), a city in Western Ukraine, at the time part of the Austrian empire. Little is known about Jacob Granat as a photographer, with at least one historian speculating that he outsourced his images, with some possibly taken by Guillermo Kahlo, and that Granat was merely the distributor of the images. Granat moved to Mexico in 1900, setting up a shop selling luggage and souvenirs in Mexico City. In 1906, Jacob Granat sold his shop and opened the first movie theater in the city, Salon Rojo. In June 1912, he was one of the founders, and the first president, of the first Jewish charitable organization in Mexico, Alianza Beneficencia Monte Sinai. He sold his theater and moved to Austria in the 1920s. He died at Auschwitz in 1943.
Extent
.2 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Overview
One photographic album containing fifty-eight black-and-white photographs of turn of the century Mexico taken by three photographers: Abel Briquet, Jacob Granat, and Charles Betts Waite.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The University of Alabama Libraries acquired the Briquet, Granat, and Waite Album of Commercial Photographs of Mexico City and Its Environs in 2020.
Processing Information
Processed by Jessica Rayman, October 2020.
- Title
- Guide to the Briquet, Granat, and Waite Album of Commercial Photographs of Mexico City and Its Environs
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Jessica Rayman
- Date
- May 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections Repository