Frances Patai Photographs

The Frances Patai Photograph Collection includes 104 black and white and 40 color photographs sized from 1.75 x 2.25 to 8 x 10 inches; 135 35mm black and white negatives; and 12 35mm black and white slides. The slides and negatives are stored separately from the prints, in Box 2.

The bulk of the Frances Patai Photograph Collection spans the period from 1937-1938 and consists chiefly of photographs she gathered during the course of her work on her unpublished book, "Heroines of the Good Fight: U.S. Women Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War." The collection includes photographs taken in Spain during the era of the Civil War by Gilberto Vega Mundo in addition to unknown photographers. The remaining images date from after the war and picture some of the women volunteers during their later years (1977-1991).

The collection is arranged into three series based on format: Prints, Slides and Negatives.

The photographic prints contain four numbers separated by colons. The first number refers to the collection number, the second to the box number, the third to the folder number, and the fourth to the individual print. For example, the first print in this collection is labeled 131:1:1:1.

Series I: The 144 prints are arranged alphabetically by topic. Includes black and white photographs taken in Spain during the Civil War. Approximately half are group shots of American Medical Bureau (AMB) volunteers, one quarter are individual portraits-including photographs of Dorothy Fontaine, Salaria Kee (a.k.a. Salaria Kea) and Clara Leight-and the remainder include photographs of food distributions, militia members, wounded soldiers, bombed buildings in Catalonia (Barcelona and Grenollers) and victims of fascist bombs. There are eight photographs of AMB members prior to reaching Spain, either on shipboard or at public events. Also included are photographs of Republican, Socialist, and anarcho-syndicalist propaganda posters. The vast majority of these images date from 1937-1938.

Approximately three quarters of the photographs taken outside of Spain are black and white snapshots of Frances Patai and Fredericka Martin at Martin's home in Cuernavaca, Mexico (1988-1989). The remainder include nine color snapshots of a Homenaje/Reunion of European volunteers in Madrid (1996), four color snapshots of Patai taken in the 1990s at the Dolores Ibárurri Foundation in Madrid, eleven color snapshots of protests and activist events in the United States that were attended by nurse Hilda Bell (Roberts) and one color photograph of social worker Dorothy Malbin in Berkeley, CA, 1987-1991. Both women were volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.

Series II: The 12 black and white slides are arranged into two categories: Matched and Unmatched Slides. These categories indicate whether there are corresponding prints in the collection. Eight of the twelve slides match the prints in the collection. These slides have been keyed to the box and folder number of the corresponding print. The four unmatched slides depict an image of a mobile hospital; a group shot of female medical personnel; American children sitting on an ambulance with a poster stating "Children of America and American doctors donate this ambulance to the children of Spain!;" and an unidentified female protester in the United States.

Series III: Negatives arranged alphabetically by topic. Approximately 40 of the negatives have matching prints. As mentioned above, the negatives are contained in envelopes and numbered according to the file folder. If the negative matches a print, the print number is noted to the right of the negative frame number or on the negative sleeve. The negatives that do not match the prints in the collection fall into two primary groups: medical personnel loading/unloading an ambulance and Frances Patai's visit to Cuernavaca, Mexico.