[Pair of Annotated Vernacular Photograph Albums Documenting the Teaching and Missionary Activities of Anna Cipolla, Mostly in Colombia]

[Various locations in Peru and Colombia, 1967. Very good.. Two photograph albums, totaling [45] leaves, illustrated with 288 original photographs in mounting corners, plus numerous postcards, greeting cards, newspaper clippings, and other ephemeral items, some laid in. First album: oblong folio. Contemporary decorative red boards illustrated in black and gold, spine bound with two screws. Second album: quarto. Contemporary padded vinyl covers, spine bound with two clear plastic bands. Minor overall wear. Occasional empty mounts. An informative pair of annotated vernacular photograph albums and scrapbooks memorializing the teaching and missionary activities of Anna Cipolla during her time in South America in the 1960s. Cipolla spent a few years in Colombia, where she taught Catholic school to indigenous South American children. The earlier album contains 131 original photographs and a handful of ephemera from Cipolla's time in Peru before arriving in Colombia. In this album, she captures images along the Amazon River in Porto Narino, several shots of a leper colony and the sisters of Saint Joseph in San Pablo, images of locals making "chicharon" and a coffee plant in La Esperanza, before arriving at her school at Usaquen, near Bogota, Colombia. Thereafter, this album includes shots from the school, including campus views, group photos of faculty, nuns, and other staff members of the school, local trips to Ciudad Kennedy, Lenguasaque, Barrio San Isidro, and Medellin, and a handful of photos of her 1965 classes, which included a second grade homeroom and a catechism class. A napkin laid into the album contains the signatures of the students ("La ninas") in her second grade class. The slightly later album picks up in Colombia in 1966 and contains 157 original photographs, along with numerous cards and newspaper clippings among other ephemeral items. This album seems to record some of Cipolla's more wide-ranging travels around Colombia, during which she captured images of dozens of indigenous peoples in San Augustin, a "Careguaje Tribe" along the Rio Orteguaza, indigenous families in Agua Negra, street scenes in Barrio La Loma and Florencia, shots of a "Feria Agropecuaria" (Agricultural Fair), numerous images of indigenous people in Maticuru, and more. Cipolla also includes several class photographs of various grade school groups as well as some staff members in Migani in 1966 and 1967, where she either visited or moved in order to teach. Throughout the albums, Cipolla memorializes numerous interactions between Catholic officials and local people, with images of nuns working in the San Pablo leper colony (mostly with the "Children of Lepers"), a baptism in Maticuru, priests walking through crowds of locals in various towns, priests and nuns posed with locals, and more. The ephemeral items are largely religious in nature, though some of the newspaper clippings record local events. A unique collection of vernacular images and ephemera memorializing a few years in the career of a Catholic missionary teacher in South America, with deep research potential. (Inventory #: 5300)