A Charlatan's Album: Cartes-de-visite from Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay (1860-1880)

IRINA PODGORNY

From Dust to Digital. Ten Years of the Endangered Archives Programme

Cambridge

Año: 2015; p. 9 - 35

This paper presents the network of itinerant characters that circulated objects, photographs, and knowledge in South America in the decades of 1860 and 1870. Following the hints provided by the cartes-de-visite, the evidence found in other repositories (in particular the local press), and secondary texts on the history of photography in South America, this article wants to shed light on the role of travelling conmen, quacks and charlatans as agents of the circulation of knowledge. As such, the cartes-de-visite accumulated and collected by these agents tell us an important history that can be understood as a model for interpreting the flow of images both in the region and on a global scale. At the same time, we want to contribute to the discussion of how historical research projects devoted to the rescue of endangered archives ? such as those collected in this volume ? can work together to make ?murdered? evidence live and speak again.