EAP207/7

These photographs refer probably to the first anthropological and archaeological collections of Francisco Pascasio Moreno (1852-1919), which were the result of several expeditions he undertook to Patagonia and Northwest Argentina between 1873 and 1876. In 1876 this collections, alongside the aforementioned photographs of archaeological and anthropological objects were displayed for the first time in the Segunda Exposición Científica de Buenos Aires, organized by the Sociedad Científica Argentina at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires city.

Later this collection of photographs was part of the Museo Antropológico y Arqueológico de Buenos Aires founded in 1877 by Moreno. That institution was closed in 1884 and all the collections were transferred to the Museo de La Plata created the same year by Moreno with the support of provincial Government. Once there, this collection was originally part of the Department of Anthropology, then was transferred to the Museo de La Plata’s Photography Lab and was finally transferred to the Archivo Histórico y Fotográfico in 2006.

The photographs were taken by Christiano Junior and then came the most familiar name of the collection. José Christiano de Freitas Henriques Junior (1832-1902) was a Portuguese photographer who in 1855 moved to Brazil where he established photographic studios in Maceió and Rio de Janeiro. In 1866 he won the bronze medal at the Exposição Nacional do Rio de Janeiro and years later he settled in Argentina, establishing two photography studios in the city of Buenos Aires. Christano Junior received a gold medal at the Exposition Nacional de Córdoba (1871) and at the aforementioned Segunda Exposición Científica de Buenos Aires. In 1876 and 1877 he pubished two portfolios known as Vistas y Costumbres de la República Argentina. In 1878 he sold his studios to Alejandro S. Witcomb (1835-1905).