DACS

mydanscarl Inventory of the Carl Mydans photographs, 1935-1968 Processed by: Karen Glynn and Meghan Lyon; machine-readable finding aid created by: Meghan Lyon David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library Duke University Durham, N.C., USA

Aleph Number: 004285346

Machine-readable finding aid derived from XML authoring program. Date of source: February 2010Processed by Karen Glynn and Meghan Lyon, February 2010; finding aid encoded by Meghan Lyon, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, February 2010 Description is in English Finding aid was prepared using DACS and local Style Guide Inventory of the Carl Mydans photographs, 1935-1968 David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library Duke University Durham, North Carolina 27708-0185 USA

Descriptive Summary David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University Mydans, Carl. Carl Mydans photographs, 1935-1968 Material in English 2.0 Linear Feet 66 Items For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog. Photojournalist (1907-2004) for the Farm Security Administration and Life magazine. Collection includes (66) 8x10 and 11x14 photographs made for the Farm Security Administration and for Life magazine from 1935-1968. Administrative Information Access Restrictions

Collection is open for educational, non-commercial use. Copyright is retained by the creator.

However, collection may contain materials to which the Acknowledgment of Legal Responsibilities and Privacy Rights form applies. Patrons must sign this form before using this collection.

Also, all or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. Consequently, there may be a 24-hour delay in obtaining these materials.

Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to use this collection.

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Carl Mydans photographs, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Provenance

The Carl Mydans photographs were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a gift in 2005.

Processing Information

Processed by Karen Glynn and Meghan Lyon, February 2010

Encoded by Meghan Lyon, February 2010

Accession(s) described in this collection: 2010-0023

Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory: DACS, EAD, NCEAD guidelines, and local Style Guide.

This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.

Biographical Note

Carl Mydans was an American photographer who spent most of his career with Life magazine. Some of his most memorable photographs were taken during World War II.

Born on May 20, 1907, Mydans studied journalism and photography in Boston in 1930 and spent some time as a writer in New York. He began working for the Farm Security Administration in 1935, where he documented rural and farm life, including migrant farm families, in the South and in New England. In 1936, he was hired as one of the first staff photographers for Life magazine. His early assignments included documenting cattle ranchers in Freer, Texas, and tunnel sand hogs in New York City. He married his wife, Shelley Smith, in 1938, and they became a writer-photographer team for Life. When World War II began, the Mydanses traveled throughout Europe and Asia. They were captured by the Japanese after the fall of the Philippines in 1941, and spent almost two years as prisoners-of-war in Manila and Shanghai. Following their release, Carl Mydans went back to the front in Europe and covered the liberation of Italy and France. His acquaintence with General Douglas MacArthur led to his covering MacArthur's return to the Philippines in 1944 and the eventual surrender of Japan in 1945.

In 1947, the Mydanses became Time-Life's bureau chiefs in Tokyo, and they remained in the Pacific area for the next several years. Carl Mydans was present during a 1948 earthquake in Fukui, Japan, and also covered the Korean War in 1950 and 1951. He traveled the world through the 1960s and 1970s, and worked for Life until it ceased weekly publication in 1972. He continued to work as a photographer for Time and other publications until his eighties. He died on August 16, 2004.

Collection Overview

Collection (2010-0023) consists of 66 black and white photographs spanning Carl Mydans' career. Images from his early work for the Farm Security Administration include photographs of cowboys and ranchers from Freer, Texas; migrant workers and rural life in Texas and Arkansas; a photograph of the Capitol building through a Washington, D.C. slum; and political banners from the 1936 presidential election.

The majority of the collection dates from his time working for Life magazine as a war photographer. Mydans' subjects include the Sino-Japanese war beginning in 1941, his time in the Philippines and the battle for Manila, his coverage of the Allies in France and Italy during the liberation of Europe, and his travels with General Douglas MacArthur during MacArthur's return to the Philippines and the subsequent surrender of the Japanese. Mydans' World War II images are fairly evenly split into equal parts combat and street scenes: there seem to be just as many photographs of tea rooms and markets in China as there are photographs of Japanese bombing raids in the Philippines. This portion of the collection also includes some of Mydans' most famous and memorable photographs, including a portrait of General MacArthur with his sunglasses and pipe, a photograph of MacArthur leading the army ashore in the Philippines, and an image of a collaborater being shaved following the liberation of France.

Another significant component of the collection is Mydans' post-World War II images, which include Japanese war crimes tribunals, Korean War coverage, portraits of coal miners and politicians in Europe, and photographs taken during the Fukui earthquake. Also included is a self-portrait of Mydans in Vietnam, the only photograph taken in color, from 1968.

Nearly all of the photographs have handwritten captions on the back, which have been transcribed in the Collection Description portion of the finding aid. Some of the handwritten captions have been supplemented by a caption list, available in hard copy in Box 3. [Brackets] indicate information added by processors. Some prints have also been signed by Mydans.

Collection Arrangement

Photographs have been boxed by size, but have not been sorted chronologically or by subject.

Subject Headings

These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.

Mydans, Carl. United States--Farm Security Administration. MacArthur, Douglas, 1880-1964. War photography. Illustrated periodicals. Migrant agricultural laborers--United States--1930-1940. Ranches--Photography. Sino-Japanese Conflict, 1931-1933. Shanghai (China)--History. World War, 1939-1945--Photography. World War, 1939-1945--Philippines. Manila (Philippines)--History. World War, 1939-1945--Collaborationists. Fukui-han (Japan)--History. Korean War, 1950-1953--Photography. Contents of Collection Photographs, 1935-1968 (3 boxes) 1Texas fence rider, 1938 County Store, Big Bend County, Texas, 1937 Japanese bombing of Chung King, China, 1941 Yellow River Fort roadway trench, Sian area, China, 1941 Surrendering the sword to the U.S. Marines at the Kurihawa Naval Base, Japan, 1945 Fight for Manila, 1945 MacArthur portrait, 1945 General Jiro Minami at War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo, 1947 Opium den, Singapore, 1941 3 amazed men at Village Table, near Chungking, 1941 Collaborist [getting her head shaved] during the Liberation of Southern France, Marseille, August 1944 [Soldiers] Near Verdun after German breakthrough at Sedan, France, 1940 French tank brigade near Verdun after the German breakthrough at Sedan, France, 1940 Mutinous soldiers of the South Korean army taken prisoner after aborted uprising, 1948 [People running during an] earthquake, Fukui, Japan, 1948 Earthquake, Fukui, Japan, 1948 Daily morning gathering at City Hall, Batesville, Arkansas, June 1936 Daughter of migrant workers near Raymondsville, Texas, 1937 Shelling of Walled City, Manila, Philippines, 1945 American and Filipino guerillas join forces in attack on Japanese, Northern Luzon, Philippines, 1945 Chinese nationalist troops at the front, Pengpu, China, 1945 View of the nation's capitol through a nearby slum area, Washington, D.C., 1935 Political banners for the 1936 election span a street in Hardwick, Vermont, 1936 Tea room, Lung Chuan-I Village, China, 1941 2Surrendar on the Missouri, 1945 One hundred year old man, Sian Area, China, 1941 [Dead men], Korea, 1950 [2 camels in the] Egypt desert, undated Sand hogs in a New York City tunnel, 1939 Ezra Pound portrait, Milano, Italy, 1940 De Valera portrait, Ireland, 1954 Pavolini, Fascist official and propaganda minister, Rome, 1940 Tojo, War Crimes trials in Tokyo, 1947 Working in the 18 inch seam, British coal miners, 1952 MacArthur in The Bataan during the Korean War, 1950 MacArthur leading at Luzon, 1945 War near Pengpu, China, 1949 Chungking, 1941 [Boats in] Shanghai, undated Migrant worker and children, Lower Rio Grande near Raymondsville, Texas, 1937 Tea room scene, Chungking, China, 1941 Fukui [earthquake], Japan, 1948 Japan, undated Conscripts of the Chinese National Army walk through Chungking on a labor detail, China, 1941 Battle for Manila, 1945 Village main street, Lung Chuan-I, China, 1941 Japan's first post-war vehicle, Hiroshima, 1947 Village street with temple bell, Lung Chuan-I, China, 1941 3Vladamir Nabokov, novelist and lepidopterist, in Ithaca, NY, 1958 Woman standing on a boat, Hong Kong, 1950 Angkor Wat, Cambodia, 1950 Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, Premier of Iran, at his trial in Tehran, Iran, 1953 White-faced steer charging the camera, Texas, 1937 Rector and church, Warleggan, England, 1953 Roustabouts take time off from their jobs in Freer, Texas, oil boom town, 1937 Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Biggleswade, England, 1955 Loungers hang around the Duval Club lunchroom in Freer, Texas, 1937 Police chief [cowboy boots], Freer, Texas, 1937 Coal miners in British pub, 1952 Corregidor just before the Japanese attack, Philippines, 1941 Minister's meeting [parking lot] in Fascist Italy, Rome, 1940 A mother carrying her baby and worldly goods flees the fighting around Seoul, Korea, 1951 Bucket carrier on the road from Kamakura to Kugenuma, Sugamo Bay, Japan, 1949 Self portrait of Mydans, Vietnam, 1968 Hat seller, Lung Chuan-I, China, 1941