Catalog of the 19th century photographs of Alice Dixon and Augustus Le Plongeon now available in spreadsheet format

Background

Bart Anderson, journalist and computer specialist, saw the need for faster access to the data entries for the 1,037 photos in the Catalog of the 19^th century photographs of Alice Dixon and Augustus Le Plongeon.

While the catalog was published as a book and PDF with an introduction that gives background about each collection, historical context, catalog organization, and other technical information Anderson noted considerable time was required to search the photo collections.

The catalog photo entries had been created as a Word document by Desmond. Anderson then took the Word file and converted it into a CSV file that is compatible with most spreadsheet and database programs, and then into an Excel file for use here. Unfortunately WordPress does not support CVS files. Email me, and I can send a copy of the file.

The Excel file is free for download, and while it retains the copyright of Lawrence G. Desmond, it is authorized for use for research purposes. The Excel file is about 300 Kb.

Catalog Organization and Materials Description

NOTE: For a complete introduction to the catalog of collections refer to the book:

A Catalog of the 19th Century Photographs of Alice Dixon and Augustus Le Plongeon

The catalog is subdivided into five collections. Each photographic item in a collection has been cataloged using a data entry card with the fields as listed below.

Collections

American Museum of Natural History (AM)

Donald Dixon Photo Album (DA)

Getty Research Institute (GRI)

Peabody Museum at Harvard University (PM)

Philosophical Research Society (PRS)

Other fields

Catalog number: # 17

Museum photo identification number: PM-P2500F

Subject:

Archaeological Site

Artifact

Biological

Document

Drawing

Ethnographic

European exploration

Geological

Henry Dixon

Painting

Portrait

View

Medium:

Lantern slide

Print or Tracing

Negative

Type:

Albumen

Collodio-chloride printing-out paper

Dry glass-plate

Gelatin glass-plate

Wet collodion glass-plate

Stereo:  Yes or No

Size:  4 x 8 Inches

Description:

Upper Temple of the Jaguars.

Entrance to inner temple, south pilaster, north façade, K-8, bas relief.  [Any recognizable person in a photo is identified]

Cross Reference:

X Ref: PM-P2500F

or

X Ref: PM-P2500F similar

The Cross Reference field gives the catalog numbers of identical or similar photos in other collections. Similar photos are defined as having the same subject matter, but they were taken at a slightly different angle or time of day from the same camera position. The differences between similar photos are often subtle and hardly noticeable at first viewing.

When the Cross Reference field does not list an identical photo in another collection that indicates that the photographic item is unique to that collection.

Note for Excel users: Under the column titled “Description” — the cell is to short to view the text for item numbers 34, 190, and 960. Excel has entered a string of ##### rather than the text. To view the texts simply double click within the cell.

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Free download- A Searchable Catalog of the 19th Century Photographs of Alice Dixon and Augustus Le Plongeon

Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, rifle, guitar, and photographic equipment. Governor’s Palace, Uxmal, Yucatán. Selfie-1876. Courtesy of the Getty Open Content Program.

A Searchable Catalog of the 19th century photos of Alice Dixon and Augustus Le Plongeon.  2.5Mb

This searchable 363 page catalog of more than one thousand photographs taken in Yucatán, and Belize in the 19^th century by Alice Dixon Le Plongeon and Augustus Le Plongeon is from the book A Catalog of the 19^th century Photographs of Alice Dixon and Augustus Le Plongeon (printed by Blurb in 2015). This PDF was made available because the PDF from Blurb (printer of the entire book-catalog) is about 90MB, and is not searchable.

For researchers in need of additional information, the book includes a Preface, Acknowledgements, and Introduction with considerable current and historical background on the five collections of Le Plongeon photographs, the photographic methods of the Le Plongeons, and how the photos in five collections were duplicated and cataloged.

The downloaded Searchable Catalog is free, and with no copyright restrictions for scholarly use.

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