Walter Rosenblum Photographs of Spanish Refugees
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Date
Creator
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Historical/Biographical Note
Walter Rosenblum (1919-2006) was a photographer, film maker, and teacher who documented the events of World War II, as well as the lives and experiences of immigrants in the United States and Spanish Civil War refugees. His work repeatedly features the privacy of individual families and the innocence of youth. Born in New York City, Rosenblum began photographing his Lower East Side neighborhood at the age of 16 using a borrowed camera. He took a photography class at the Boys' Club where he worked as part of the National Youth Administration, and in 1937 joined the Photo League, a vibrant community for New York photographers. There he met and studied with Lewis Hine, Berenice Abbott, Elizabeth McCausland, and Paul Strand. Rosenblum went on to edit the organization's Photo Notes and became the president in 1941.
Rosenblum served the United States Army as a combat photographer during World War II in the Western Front where he took the first motion picture footage of the Dachau concentration camp. He later received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, five battle stars, a Purple Heart, and a Presidential Unit Citation for his service. He later worked as an overseas staff photographer for the Unitarian Service Committee from May to October 1946, pursuing projects in France and Czechoslovakia, including documenting the lives of Spanish Civil War refugees displaced by conflict. Later projects focused on recording the experiences of people living in Haiti, East Harlem, and the South Bronx. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship for "People of the South Bronx."
Beginning in 1947, Rosenblum taught photography at numerous institutions, including Brooklyn College, Cooper Union, the Yale Summer School, and the Rencontre de La Photographie in Arles France. With his wife, photographic historian Naomi Rosenblum, he curated international exhibitions. His photographs are represented in numerous international institutions, including, the Library of Congress, Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
Sources:
"Walter Rosenblum," The J. Paul Getty Museum. http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=3511&page=1
"Walter Rosenblum," Rosenblum Photo. http://www.rosenblumphoto.org/wr_bio.html
Arrangement
Photographs are arranged alphabetically.
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains 25 black-and-white photographic prints taken by Walter Rosenblum in Toulouse and Saint-Jean de Luz, France in 1946. The photographs document the lives of Spanish Civil War refugees living in camps and other settlements in Southern France, with emphasis on the war's impact on children and civilian families.
Subjects
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open wihtout restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by Walter Rosenblum were transferred to New York University in 2007 by Lisa Rosenblum. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, (212) 998-2630.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Walter Rosenblum Photographs of Spanish Refugees; ALBA 249; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Lisa Rosenblum in 2007. The accession number associated with this gift is 1950.272.
Existence and Location of Copies
Reproductions of some photographs were used in fundraising material for the Unitarian Service Committee, Spanish Refugee Appeal, and UNESCO refugee campaigns during the 1940s and 1950s. Select images have appeared in the Christian Register and the New York Times Magazine. An additional set of prints was purchased by the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain and exhibited as part of a Rosenblum retrospective at PhotoEspaƱa.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Upon receipt, photographs were mounted and framed, both of which were removed during processing activities. Photographs were encased in mylar, rehoused in acid-free folders and boxes, and alphabetized by titles printed on the verso of each photograph. English photograph titles were used because only some photographs were titled in both English and Spanish.