Journey of the USA Citizen Frank Whitson Fetter to the USSR: History of the Foreign Photographic Collection in the Duke University Library (1930)

Print PDF

УДК 930.25+94(47+57):77

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2020-4-1184-1200

Ramina O. Abilova

State Museum of Fine Art of the Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan, Russian Federation

Tatiana P. Krasheninnikova

Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russian Federation

Journey of the USA Citizen Frank Whitson Fetter to the USSR: History of the Foreign Photographic Collection in the Duke University Library (1930)

Abstract

The article presents the results of studying the Whitson Fetter (1899-1991) photo collection on Fetter’s visit to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1930. He spent six days in Moscow and six weeks in Kazan, then took a trip down the Volga River and the Caspian Sea. In his journey, Frank W. Fetter took about 330 photographs, which are currently stored in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA). The article reconstructs the origin of the photographic collection (USSR, June-August 1930) and its life in the family archive of Frank W. Fetter (USA, 1930-1991). In 1992, according to his will, the entire archive, including photographs, was transferred to the library of the Duke University. Thus, the attention is focused on the library activities in acquisition, storage, accounting, and usage of Frank W. Fetter’s photographs (1992 - present). In this context, 2008 is of particular importance: it is then that the photographs were scanned and published on the website. The study is based on content and discourse analysis of the photographs; it uses comparative method for studying Frank W. Fetter paper collection at the Duke University library and materials from Russian archives, interviews of participants in the documents transfer to archival storage and photographs digitization. Thus, in a first time case-study of a single photograph collection, the authors trace the route of photographs from their creator to their researchers. Using photographs taken in the USSR, but stored outside Russia, is to supplement the historiography with valuable information on the history of photograph collections and to consider photographic documents on the history of Soviet Russia as an item of storage in foreign archives. The article may be of interest to historians, archivists, museum specialists, curators, and all researchers studying photo documents as objects of storage.

Keywords

David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, manuscripts in the Duke University library (Durham, North Carolina, USA), Frank W. Fetter photographs, digital photograph collection, preservation and conservation of photographs, Soviet Union, Kazan, Ernest Zitser: digital collections “Americans in the Land of Lenin: Documentary Photographs of Early Soviet Russia.”

Download the article: abilova_krashennikova_doi

References

MAGIDOV, V. M. Kinofotofonodokumenty v kontekste istoricheskogo znaniya [Cinema and photo documents in the context of historical knowledge. In Russ.]. Moscow, RGGU publ., 2005, 394 p.

YUMASHEVA, Yu. Yu. Obzor fotokollektsii natsional'nykh arkhivov, bibliotek, muzeev, predstavlennykh v seti Internet [Overview of photo collections of national archives, libraries, museums presented in the Internet. In Russ.] IN: Istoricheskaya informatika, 2019. no. 1, pp. 47-117.

HENSEN, S. L. Archives, personal papers, and manuscripts: A cataloging manual for archival repositories, historical societies, and manuscript libraries. Chicago, Society of American Archivists, 1989, 196 p.

About the authors

Abilova Ramina Olegovna, PhD in History, State Museum of Fine Art of the Republic of Tatarstan, senior researcher, Kazan, Russian Federation, +7-843-238-43-27, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Krasheninnikova Tatiana Petrovna, PhD in History, associate professor, Kazan Federal University, Institute of International Relations, assistant professor, Kazan, Russian Federation, +7-843-292-20-90, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 25.02.2020, published (for citation):

ABILOVA, R. O., KRASHENINNIKOVA, T. P. Puteshestvie grazhdanina SShA Franka Uitsona Fettera v SSSR: istoriya zarubezhnoi fotokollektsii biblioteki Dyukskogo universiteta 1930 g. [Journey of the USA Citizen Frank Whitson Fetter to the USSR: History of the Foreign Photographic Collection in the Duke University Library (1930). In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2020, no. 4, pp. 1184-1200. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2020-4-1184-1200

You can read completely article in the russian historic-archival magazine “The Herald of an Archivist”. Read more about terms of subscription here.

Полностью материал публикуется в российском историко-архивоведческом журнале ВЕСТНИК АРХИВИСТА. Ознакомьтесь с условиями подписки здесь.