Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
Richard E. Ahlborn Slide Collection
Ahlborn, Richard E., 1933-2015
Ms.2019.020
0.8 Cubic Feet
8 boxes
n.d.
The Richard E. Ahlborn Slide Collection contains more than 3,000 slides created and collected by Ahlborn over his extensive career as a photographer, curator, and scholar of Mexican American art. Slides include images of artworks, architecture, buildings (especially churches), towns, crafts/furniture, graphic art pieces, tools, textiles, and religious objects.
English
.
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Use Restrictions
Permission to publish material from Richard E. Ahlborn Slide Collection must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Richard E. Ahlborn Slide Collection, Ms2019-020, Special Collections, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
Acquisition Information
This collection was donated to the Art & Architecture Libray in 2005. It was part of several slide collections transferred to Special Collections in 2018.
Processing Information
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Richard E. Ahlborn Slide Collection was completed in May 2019.
Biographical Note
Richard E. Ahlborn was born in 1933. Throughout his career, he was a specialist in Mexican American art. Prior to the 1950s, he served as a curator at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. He was a photographer for the Department of Cultural History in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology, later the National Museum of American History. In 1964, he took a position as a curator in for the museum, a job he held until his retirement in 2002. In 2005, Ahlborn donated his extensive slide collection, created over some 50 years of scholarship, to the Art + Architecture Library at Virginia Tech. His later research focused on the San Xavier del Bac mission church in Tuscon, Arizona, and its restoration. Ahlborn died in Maryland in 2015 at the age of 82.
Scope and Content
The Richard E. Ahlborn Slide Collection contains more than 3,000 slides created and collected by Ahlborn over his extensive career as a photographer, curator, and scholar of Mexican American art. Slides include images of artworks, architecture, buildings (especially churches), towns, crafts/furniture, graphic art pieces, tools, textiles, and religious objects. The majority of the slides relate to Mexican, United States, Central American, South American, and Spanish objects and locations, though there are smaller sets of images from China, Japan, Italy, and the Philippines. Individual slides in the collection are labeled by location, at the very least, but usually with additional details.
Arrangement
The slides were orginally housed in boxes or sheets in labeled groupings. Slides were rehoused in boxes by geographic region (reflecting the creator's original organization, usually be type of subject--artwork, towns, architecture, crafts, etc.). Materials have been placed in alphabetical order by geographical name.
Following the donation of additional materials in spring of 2021, a second series was added wherein slides appear in the order in which they were received. One folder contains Ahlborn's inventory and his description of his organizational system.
Architecture (discipline)
Works of art
China Artwork #1-#1011-10Italy Artwork #1-#3111-13India Artwork #1-#3114-16Japan Artwork #1-#5117-21Japan Artwork #6-#921-4Bolivia/Colonial Artwork25Columbia Art & Architecture #1-#326-8Ecuador Art #1-#229-10Mexico Architecture #1-#6211-16Mexico Crafts #1-#5217-21Mexico Crafts #6-#1031-5Mexico Graphic Arts #1-#236-7Mexico Graphic Arts #3/Printing #138Mexico Graphics/Chromolithos #1-#239-10Mexico Graphics #3311Mexico Paintings #1-10312-21Mexico Paintings #11-1741-7Peru Arts & Travel #1-#348-10Peru Arts #4/Silver #1411Peru Silver #2-#6412-16Philippines Art & Architecture #1417Philippines Churches #1-#3418-20Philippines Furniture #1/Sculpture #1421Philippines Sculpture #2/Towns #151Philippines Towns #252South American Colonial Paintings & Sculptures (countries unknown)53Spain Ceramics #154Spain Crafts & Tools #155Spain Malaspine Expedition #156Spain Maps, Prints, Paintings & Caligraphy #157Spain Sculpture #1-#258-9Spain Textiles/Towns, Architecture, & Views #1510Spain Towns, Architecture, & Views #2-#6511-15Spain Towns, Tools, & Scenes #1516USA, Arizona #161USA, California Architecture #162USA, California Architecture #2/Baja #163USA, California, Baja #2/Objects, Religious #164USA, California, Objects Religious #2/Art Objects #165USA, Colorado #1/Georgia #166Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic #167USA, New Mexico, Architecture, Scenes, & Views #1-#768-14USA, New Mexico, Cemeteries #1615USA, New Mexico, Cemeteries #1/Religious Objects #1616USA, New Mexico, Religious Objects #2/Religious Images #1 71USA, New Mexico, Religious Images #2-#772-7USA, New Mexico, Miscellaneous Objects #178USA, New Mexico, Tools, Crafts, & Artifacts #1-#279-10USA, New Mexico, Tools, Crafts, & Artifacts #3/Furniture #1711USA, New Mexico, Furniture #2712USA, New Mexico, Furniture #3/Textiles #1713USA, New Mexico, Textiles #2714USA, New Mexico, Textiles #3/Miscellaneous #1715USA, New Mexico, Miscellaneous #2716USA, New Mexico, Miscellaneous #381USA, Texas, Missions #1-#482-5Additional donationMexico, North, Churches #191Mexico, North, Civil Architecture and Churches #1-#292-3Mexico City, Churches #1-#394-6Mexico City and Ocotlan, Public Architecture #197Mexico, North, Churches and Maps #198Mexico, North, Churches and Frescoes #1-#299-10Mexico, North, Churches #2-#6911-15Mexico, North, Architecture #1-#6916-21Mexico, North, Architecture #7-#9101-3Mexico, North, Architecture and Crafts #1104Mexico, North, Furniture #1105Cuba, Architecture #1106USA, Florida, Architecture #1107Haiti, Panama, and Dominican Republic, Churches #1108Puerto Rico, Sculptures #1109Puerto Rico, Sculptures and Paintings #11010Puerto Rico, Paintings #11011Guatemala, Architecture #1-#21012-13Guatemala, Sculptures #11014Guatemala and Nicaragua, Architecture and Art #11015Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, Churches #11016Peru, Art and Architecture #1-#21017-18Peru, Paintings and Pulpits #11019Peru, Arts #11020Peru, Pancho Fierro paintings #11021Peru and Brazil, Paintings and Sculptures #1111Argentina and Brazil, Drawings and Sculptures #1112Argentina and Brazil, Art #1113Brazil, Architecture and Sculpture #1114Brazil and Chile, Scenes #1115Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay, Art and Scenes #1116USA, Midwest and New York, Architecture #1117Background on collection and its organization118Scope and ContentsThis folder contains background on Richard Ahlborn and his interest in Spanish American art and architecture, and documentation and clarification of his original system of organization