An album of Le Plongeon photographic prints featured in an exhibition of women photographers of Mexico

José Antonio Rodriguez’s exhibit titled Otras miradas. Fotógrafas en México 1832-1960 focuses on women photographers of Mexico. It opened recently in Madrid at the Casa de America. In the exhibit is an album of 101 photographic prints made by Alice Dixon Le Plongeon titled Yucatán ilustrado. Ruinas, Mexico, 1876. The subject matter of the prints is of the landscape of Yucatán, ethnographic subjects, city and country life, and the ancient Maya ruins. The album itself was probably constructed in 1876 by her husband Augustus Le Plongeon in Merida, Yucatán. In size, it is 17.7 x 13.1 cm.

The album is owned by the Fundación Cultural Televisa of Mexico. It may have been part of the Museo Yucateco collection in Merida prior to accession by Televisa. The prints in the album are exquisite, and add to our knowledge of the photographic output of the Le Plongeons during the 1870s and 1880s in Yucatán. An exact count has not yet been made of all the photographic prints made by the photographer and writer Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, but extant are more than 2,000 in private and public collections. We will provide additional information about the album as it becomes available.