Inside the Prints & Photographs Reading Room, researchers have immediate access to multiple browsing files of pictures housed in filing cabinets. Several files contain photographic prints depicting Latin America and the Caribbean. You can read more about our browsing files in the Picture This blog:

Foreign Geographic File (Most Countries)

Located in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room, this browsing file contains photographic prints categorized by country. They date between 1880 and 1950 and include prints by notable photographers, such as Lorenzo Becerril, who co-owned a studio in Puebla, Mexico with Eduardo Unda in the mid- to late-nineteenth century; Charles DeForest Fredricks (1823-1894) and Augusto Daries, who co-owned C.D. Fredricks y Daries in Havana, Cuba in the same general time period; and Peruvian photographer Martín Chambi (1891-1973), who is represented by a print showing the Hotel Ferrocarril in Cuzco.

Stereograph Foreign Geographic File (Most Countries)

Like the Foreign Geographic File, the Stereograph File is located in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room. A stereograph consists of two nearly identical photographs or photomechanical prints that produce the illusion of a single three-dimensional image when viewed together, usually through a stereoscope. Within the Stereograph File is a Stereograph Foreign Geographic section that contains stereographs of Latin America and the Caribbean organized by country. Most were created by publishers in the United States, such as the Keystone View Company. Well represented subjects include the Panama Canal and the Spanish-American War.