Call Number:

PH-02470

Collection Name:

Peter Buckley Papers and Photography Collection

Creator:

No. of Items:

5500 items

Span Dates:

1943-2007 (bulk 1950s-1970s)

Description:

Photographic prints, negatives, transparencies, scrapbooks, correspondence, clippings, annotated books, manuscripts, and book dummies document the life and career of Peter Buckley. The collection is organized into the following two series: I. Projects, 1943-1998, undated; and II. Career-Related and Personal, 1945-2007, undated.

Series I. Projects, comprises the bulk of the collection. It consists of photographic material for Buckley’s book projects, and includes negatives, contact sheets, prints, slides, and a small amount of transparencies, as well as correspondence, clippings, annotated books, manuscripts, and book dummies. Copies of his books Bullfight (1958) and Ernest (1978) are also included. Oversize mounted and matted prints from Peru, Greece, Holland, Switzerland, France, and Guatemala are present as well as oversize mounted prints of eagles and one inscribed print of a bullfighter. Smaller prints from other projects are also present.

Series II. Career-Related and Personal, contains scrapbooks, photographic prints, negatives, and contact sheets, clippings and tear sheets, gifts, and posters. Buckley’s plan for a photography exhibition from the 1990s and a detailed resume he put together in the 1970s also form part of this series.

Series Outline

Series I. Projects, 1943-1998, undated

Subseries A. Countries, 1952-1987, undated

Subseries B. Ernest Hemingway, 1943-1998

Subseries C. Holt Urban Social Studies Series, 1965-1968

Subseries D. Subjects, 1950s-1988, undated

Series II. Career-Related and Personal, 1945-2007, undated

Arrangement by Format

Contact sheets, prints, and manuscript materials, Boxes 1-23

Oversize Materials, Boxes 24-32, 44 and Flat File (FF) 33.15

Negatives (restricted), Transparencies, and Slides, Boxes 33-43

Copper printing plates, Box 44

Series Descriptions

Series I. Projects, 1943-1998, undated (32.5 boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 1 flat file drawer)

This series documents Buckley’s career as a photographer. The series is divided into four subseries: A. Countries, 1952-1987, undated; B. Ernest Hemingway, 1943-1998; C. Holt Urban Social Studies Series, 1965-1968; and D. Subjects, 1950s-1988, undated.

Subseries A. Countries, 1952-1987, undated

This subseries makes up the bulk of the collection and contains mostly photographic material–negatives, contact sheets, prints, and slides–from Buckley’s travels throughout the 1950s and 1970s. Noteworthy are Buckley’s contact sheets which are often marked with instructions for printing and cropping. The material is organized by location in keeping with Buckley’s original organizational system. The countries represented include Belgium, Canada, England, France, Greece, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States, and several in Central and South America. In most cases, the negatives correspond to one or more book projects, with the exception of Belgium, Canada, England, Morocco, and Turkey, and the United States which were either unrelated to any specific project or intended for an unrealized book project.

Titles listed in the Container List were transferred from Buckley’s original envelopes. Buckley employed his own numbering system to organize his negatives by project. The numbers are listed with the negatives in the Container List. Physically, the negatives are arranged in numerical order, except where different formats were intermixed, in which case they were separated and then arranged numerically. Contact sheets for negatives that did not already have a corresponding contact sheet were printed by Ransom Center staff and are appropriately marked and interfiled with Buckley’s originals. All contact sheets are labeled with their negative number and are arranged in numerical order except for those marked "specially selected" or "super special" which were filed separately in keeping with Buckley’s original organization. "Specially selected" contact sheets for specific countries are filed under that location. A set of intermixed contact sheets from different countries designated "super special," which includes contact sheets of the French mime, Étienne Decroux, can be found at the end of Subseries A. Two sets of "valuable prints" are also present: the first set includes prints from various countries as well as prints of a nude model and is located at the end of Subseries A; the second set consists solely of photographs from Bullfight and is filed with material from that book. A small set of "specially selected" negatives and contact sheets of general subjects can be found in Subseries D, along with the negatives for Étienne Decroux and the nude model. The "specially selected,""super special," and "valuable prints" were being considered by Buckley for a possible exhibition, the plan for which is located in Series II.

Many of the photographs were shot for Buckley’s Around the World series and other children’s books, including Cesare of Italy (1954), Luis of Spain (1955), Michel of Switzerland (1955), Jan of Holland (1956), Okolo of Nigeria (1962), Dimitrios, Boy of Greece (1962) (also published as Greek Island Boy in 1965), and I Am from Puerto Rico (1971). The materials from France, Mexico, and Central and South America, and some from Spain, were for the Holt, Rinehart and Winston foreign language textbooks and filmstrips, Español: Hablar y Leer (1962) and Le Français: Parler et Lire (1963). Spain has several projects associated with it, in addition to the aforementioned books, including The Spanish Plateau (1959) and, most notably, Bullfight (1958).

The only non-photographic material in this subseries relates to Bullfight and includes Buckley’s contract and correspondence with Simon and Schuster, Inc., two copies of the published book, reviews, and Buckley’s proposal for a film on bullfighting. One copy of Bullfight is flagged with contact sheet numbers for most of the photographs. The other is leather bound and slip cased, signed by Buckley, Richard Simon, President of Simon and Schuster, and many of the matadors and others featured in the photographs.

Related material for all of these projects, primarily clippings and correspondence, is available in several of the scrapbooks located in Series II.

Subseries B. Ernest Hemingway, 1943-1998

This subseries consists of source materials and production materials for Ernest (1978), as well as other material related to Hemingway. Included are several annotated books by or about Hemingway, as well as clippings about him and about his widow, Mary.

The source materials consist of negatives and copy negatives of photographs of Hemingway which Buckley considered using for his book. Original photographs given to Buckley by Mary Hemingway are also present. The production material consists of prints made from the copy negatives, many annotated or with crop marks; typed and handwritten notes and a preliminary draft of the text for the book; and a partial dummy comprised of some photographs included in the book. For conservation purposes, the photographs from the dummy were removed from the original magnetic photo album pages and individually sleeved.

A copy of the published book is included, as are reviews, and marketing and publicity material. Photographs related to publicity for the book, removed from an album, are also present in this subseries and include images of a store window display and a book signing, and a television appearance by Buckley with one of Hemingway’s granddaughters. The correspondence included in the subseries, most of which is photocopied, documents Buckley’s interactions with book publishers and with staff from the John F. Kennedy Library which holds Hemingway’s archive, as well as his relationship with the Hemingway family, and his own promotion of his book. The correspondence is arranged chronologically with incoming and outgoing letters interfiled. Of note is some photocopied correspondence to Buckley from Hemingway regarding the possibility of his writing an introduction for Bullfight. A small amount of correspondence between Susan Buckley and Crisman Films regarding the use of Buckley’s photographs for a film on Hemingway is also included.

Additional Hemingway material, including some correspondence, is located in the "Spain 1956" scrapbook in Series II.

Subseries C. Holt Urban Social Studies Series, 1965-1968

This subseries consists of negatives, contact sheets, and a small number of color transparencies related to the four books in the Holt Urban Social Studies Series: William, Andy and Ramón (1966), Five Friends at School (1966), Living as Neighbors (1966), and Our Growing City (1968). As with the previous projects, the contact sheets are marked with printing and cropping instructions. Two copies of a pamphlet written by Buckley, "The Story Behind Holt’s Urban Social Studies Program," as well as negatives and contact sheets of Buckley photographed with the children from the series are also included.

Clippings, reviews, and correspondence regarding these books is located in the scrapbook dated 1965-1967 in Series II.

Subseries D. Subjects, 1950s-1988, undated

This subseries contains photographic material for unfinished projects and general subject matters. Material for an unpublished book on eagles comprises the bulk of the subseries and includes negatives, contact sheets, prints, and a detailed dummy with images, text, and notes on the layout of the book. For conservation purposes, the dummy was digitized in its original form and the original unstable plastic sleeves were discarded.

Negatives, contact sheets, and prints of the actress Anita Morris, originally intended for an unrealized book on human expressions based on Darwin’s theories, also form part of this subseries. Other subjects represented with negatives, contact sheets, and slides are the French actor and mime Étienne Decroux, an aspiring model/actress Nina Di Palma, the sculptor Chaim Gross and a nude model in his studio, Margaux Hemingway, other female models, a new housing development, scenes from nature, a sneaker factory, and various styles of dance and theater. There is also a small selection of unidentified subjects. A small group of “specially selected” negatives and contact prints are also included in this subseries.

Series II. Career-Related and Personal, 1945-2007, undated (1 box, 6 oversize boxes, 1 flat file drawer)

This series consists of materials related to Buckley’s career as well as personal items. Included are clippings, a plan for a photography exhibition, his contract with Simon and Schuster, Inc. for I Am from Puerto Rico, two sets of prints from portfolios, a detailed resume, photographs of Buckley, magazines, reviews, and several bullfight posters. Three gifts in this series are a photograph of Ernest Hemingway inscribed to Buckley, a matted photograph of the two of them with an inscription from Hemingway, and a print of a bullfight in Arles, France from artist Michael Crouser.

Of note in this series are Buckley’s scrapbooks. Two of the scrapbooks have been restricted due to their fragile condition. Digital copies of these scrapbooks are available in the Ransom Center for patron access. Five of the scrapbooks contain clippings, correspondence, prints, and ephemera primarily related to the books from the Around the World series and one for the Holt Urban Social Studies series. The correspondence includes letters from children featured in the books, as well as from fans of the books, many of them children. One scrapbook commemorates Buckley’s time in Spain and contains clippings, prints, and personal memorabilia from his experiences photographing bullfights. This scrapbook also contains items related to the publication of Bullfight, such as galley pages with handwritten corrections and reviews. Correspondence from Ernest and Mary Hemingway is also included in this scrapbook, including a Christmas card from 1957, and an announcement of the 1954 Nobel Prize ceremony with a note from Hemingway. A scrapbook from 1958, which included clippings and reviews for Bullfight, was disbound and the contents were removed for preservation purposes. Preservation photocopies of the original album pages are included with the original items.

All but one of the scrapbooks contained loose materials, which were housed in folders. The scrapbook from 1965 was disbound and had its pages sleeved, though the original covers were retained. The pages from the last two scrapbooks, 1958 and 1965 to 1967, were removed from their binders and re-sleeved and housed in folders.

Finding Aid URL:

https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=01058

Location(s):

Buckley, P., osf (Oversize materials)
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Buckley, P., Boxes 1-23 (Contact sheets, prints, and manuscript materials)
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Buckley, P., Boxes 1-23 (Contact sheets, prints, and manuscript materials)
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Buckley, P., Boxes 1-23 (Contact sheets, prints, and manuscript materials)
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Buckley, P., Boxes 1-23 (Contact sheets, prints, and manuscript materials)
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Buckley, P., Boxes 24-32 (Oversize materials)
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Buckley, P., Boxes 24-32 (Oversize materials)
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Special permission required Buckley, B., Boxes 33-36 (Negatives and Transparencies)
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Special permission required Buckley, B., Boxes 37-42 (Negatives and Transparencies)
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Buckley, P., Boxes 33-36
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Buckley, P., Boxes 37-42
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