Nomination form International Memory of the World Register Title of item being proposed

Collection of photographs taken during the War Against Paraguay 1866-1908 1.0 Summary (max 200 words)

The iconographic collection under the custody of the Sala de Materiales Especiales de la Biblioteca Nacional de Uruguay (Special Materials Room of the BNU), comprises approximately 50,000 documents in various media and formats.. This year we celebrate the 198th anniversary of the foundation of the first Public Library –which later became the Biblioteca Nacional del Uruguay. Thanks to the work carried out by many generations of officers it has been possible to preserve the different collections, including some items form the foundational stage; this allows us to state that the Library has fulfilled its mission of keeping custody and preserving the documentary heritage that forms its archive. The photographs taken during the War Against Paraguay, 1865-1870 add up to a total of approximately 100 photos; this unfortunate historical event is still subjec t to study and research, consequently, new documentation may appear. These pictures (albumens) were taken in the battlefield by Bate & Co., installed in Montevideo at the time (the glass negatives no longer exist) are currently being postulated for the WDL. They have been consulted and used in our Library since 1947 to date; and have given rise to several publications in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

2.0 Nominator

2.1 Name of nominator (person or organization) BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL DEL URUGUAY – National Library of Uruguay 2.2 Relationship to the nominated documentary heritage Institution responsible for the custody, conservation and dissemination of the documentary heritage produced in the country. 2.3 Contact person(s) (to provide information on nomination) B.A. Graciela Gargiulo, Deputy Director.

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2.4 Contact details

Name María Graciela Gargiulo Brocca Address 18 de julio 1790 CP 11.200 Telephone (598) 2400 00 91

Facsimile (598) 2400 00 91

Email [email protected]

3.0

Identity and description of the documentary heritage

3.1 Name and identification details of the items being nominated If inscribed, the exact title and institution(s) to appear on the certificate should be given. In this part of the form you must describe the document or collection in sufficient detail to make clear precisely what you are nominating. Any collection must be finite (with beginning and end dates) and closed. The “Photographs of the War Against Paraguay that belong to the Biblioteca Nacional” are part of an important collection purchased by the institution following a long administrative process that started in 1947 following the proposal made by the then Director of the Library in 1950; an Executive Resolution finally authorised the procurement. It was purchased, for 20,000 Uruguayan pesos, from Dr. José María Fernández Saldaña -a renowned historian, writer and journalist in the River Plate. It was the first South American war with photographic coverage, and due to this fact was called the “Illustrated War”. This mission was undertaken by the Baté company, established in Uruguay. The National Library counts with one of the most consulted iconographic collections of this historical process, and it contains 95 photographic records from the 1866 - 1908. period In his study Imágenes del Río de la Plata (Images of the River Plate) edited in 1983, Béquer Casaballe states that. “In the photographs taken by Baté one finds the synthesis of this war, in the form of a record devoid of any sort of conditioning or ultimate goals; the possible sympathy of the author towards the allied armies does not translate into the images -which even become the rationale against this chapter of the history of these peoples. The work of the reporters in this war suffered technical constraints which nevertheless serve to highlight the transcendence of this type of documentation. It is thus essential to take into account the hurdles faced during each take, and thus understand the exact import of the work carried out. The glass plates were 2

sensitized with collodion, in very hot and damp weather, immediately before taking the picture, and developed before the collodion dried in a tent that served as dark room. One of the photographs taken by Baté shows his tent- laboratory close to a mangrullo (observation tower) in the Uruguayan camp”. These pictures were digitized for the first time in 2002, in a very rudimentary manner and without sufficient knowledge; the process was thus repeated to improve the resolution and thus obtain a better archive image. The work was carried out together with the technicians from the Montevideo City Authorities Centre of Photography who have always been instrumental to us. At present, consultations are carried out through the data base, which therefore allows universal access, enabling the visualization of collections which may only be used by researchers -specialists who correspondingly have the possibility of finding in these documents the possibility of introducing themselves into History and its sources. Our collec tion of photographs has been a starting point for historians, sociologists, visual artists, film-makers, both national and international, who have defined them “a testimony of sensibility and life”.

3.4 History/provenance Describe what you know of the history of the collection or document. Your knowledge may not be complete, but give the best description you can. The BNU has an administrative file that gathers all the historical documentation of the Institution. It includes: notes, paper-work, in-house affairs, etc. The different volumes of this archive were consulted, starting in 1947 (when the procurement procedure commenced) until 1955 (when the photographs were initially reproduced on request from two Paraguayan investigators specialized on the subject) in order to confirm there provenance. In December 1950 an Executive Resolution authorized the procurement of the iconographic Collection belonging to Dr. José María Fernández Saldaña, composed by 4,200 items, for a total sum of 20,000 Uruguayan pesos. In fact, these images have been in custody in the Library since 1947 in order to prepare an inventory. At the time, the BNU counted with a sector called the “Museum”, and it was there that these documents have been preserved to date; it only came to be called Special Materials Room in the 1980s.

3.5 Bibliography A bibliography demonstrates what others have independently said and written about the heritage you are nominating. It is best if you can cite scholars from several countries, rather than just your own country, and if they are authoritative voices clearly independent from both your own institution and UNESCO.

BRUNO, Mauricio. Fotografía militar. Guerra e identidad a través de las imágenes 18651910, in Fotografía en Uruguay: historia y usos Sociales. 1840-1930. Montevideo: Intendencia 3

Municipal de Montevideo. Centro de Fotografía, 2011. CASABALLE, Amado Bécquer and CUARTEROLO, Miguel A. Imágenes del Río de la Plata: crónica de la fotografía rioplatense 1840-1940. Buenos Aires: by the photographer, 1983. ___________________________________________ Imágenes del Río de la Plata. Crónica de la fotografía rioplatense 1840-1940. 2ª ed. Buenos Aires: by the photographer, 1985. CUARTEROLO, Miguel A. Iconografía de Guerra, Fotografías de la Triple Alianza 18651870. In: Congreso de Historia de la Fotografía (1°: Mayo 23-24, 1992: Buenos Aires, Argentina). Papers. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2005. ____________________ Soldados de la memoria: imágenes y hombres de la Guerra del Paraguay. Buenos Aires: Planeta, 2000. ____________________ Una guerra en el lienzo. La fotografía y su influencia en la iconografía de la guerra del Paraguay. In: Congreso de Historia de la Fotografía, (4°: 1995: Buenos Aires, Argentina) Papers. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1995 DORATIOTO, Francisco; FERGUSON, Juan, trans. Maldita guerra – Nueva historia de la Guerra del Paraguay. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2004. ESCOBAR, Ticio; SALERNO, Osvaldo; SEIFERHELD, Alfredo M. La guerra del 70: una visión fotográfica. Asunción: Museo del Barro, 1985. FERNÁNDEZ Labeque, Alicia; GADEA Sellanes, Gabriel; VILLA, Oscar Jorge.

MENDIVE, Gerardo;

La fotografía en la perspectiva histórica nacional. Revista de la

Biblioteca Nacional (19): 133-147, July 1979. FERNÁNDEZ Saldaña, José María. Las fotografías de la guerra del Paraguay. La Mañana, Montevideo, 6th February 1927, Weekly suplement Nº 231. ____________________________ Guerra del Paraguay. Fotos de época. El Día, Montevideo, 25th August 1935, Sunday suplement Nº 137. _____________________________ Un retrato falsificado del general paraguayo Robles. El Día, Montevideo, 10th September 1939, Sunday suplement Year VIII Nº 348. _____________________________ Un falso retrato del General Robles: Sobre iconografía paraguaya. Para el doctor Viriato Díaz Pérez, en Asunción. Revista del Instituto Histórico y Geográfico del Uruguay (II). June 1921. ______________________________ La Guerra del Paraguay en fotografías de la época. El Día, Montevideo, 25th August 1940, Sunday suplement. ______________________________ La Guerra hace tres cuartos de siglo. Crónica gráfica de la Campaña del Paraguay. El Día, Montevideo, 9th January 1944, Sunday suplement. 4

______________________________ La Guerra del Paraguay hace 78 años. El Día, Montevideo, 12th November 1944,

Sunday suplement Nº 617, Year XIII.

______________________________ La guerra hace 3 cuartos de siglo. Notas gráficas de la Campaña del Paraguay. El Día, Montevideo, 31st Octuber 1943, Sunday suplement. La Guerra del Paraguay en fotografías [recording]. Montevideo: Biblioteca Nacional. Dirección Nacional de Impresiones y Publicaciones Oficiales, 2007. 1 cd-rom. PINO Menck, Alberto del. Javier López, fotógrafo de Bate & Cía en la Guerra del Paraguay. Boletín Histórico del Ejército. v. 68 (294-97): 33-69, 1997. _____________________

El 2° escuadrón ligero (1865-1869) artilleros orientales en la

guerra del Paraguay. Boletín Histórico del Ejército. v. 69 (298-300) : 33-102, 1998. _______________________ Fotografías de guerra, en batallas que hicieron historia. El País. Montevideo, 2005, Graphic Mini Series Nº 23. ________________________

Imagines de lá Guerra del Paraguay y confusiones de

identidade. In: “Anais do Colóquio Ibero-Sul-Americano de História-entre os dois lados do Atlántico”/ Carlos Humberto Corrêa, coord. Santa Catarina : Edição do Instituto Histórico e Geografico de Florianópolis, 2009. PINO Menck, Alberto del ; FERNÁNDEZ

Labeque, Alicia ; VILLA,

GARGIULO, Graciela. La Guerra del Paraguay en fotografías

Jorge ;

Montevideo: Biblioteca

Nacional, 2008.

RUBIANI, Jorge. La Guerra de la Triple Alianza. Asunción: Diario ABC Color, 20012002. 2 Volumes in fascicles. SALLES, Ricardo Guerra do Paraguai : memórias & imagens. Rio de Janeiro: Biblioteca Nacional, 2003. TORAL, André Amaral de. Imagens em desorden: A iconografia da Guerra do Paraguai (1864-1870). San Pablo: Universidade de São Paulo, 2001. _____________________ Entre retratos e cadáveres: a fotografia na Guerra do Paraguai. Revista Brasileira de Historia. 19 (38): 283-310, 1999. VARESE, Juan Antonio La Guerra ilustrada. El País, Montevideo, 21st May 1989. ____________________ Historia de la fotografía en el Uruguay. Fotógrafos de Montevideo. Montevideo: Banda Oriental, 2007. YUBI, Javier. La Guerra Grande. Imágenes de una epopeya Asunción: El Lector, 2010. YUBI, Javier

La Guerra Grande. Imágenes de una epopeya. 2nd . ed. corrected and

extended. Asunción: Servilibro, 2012.

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4.0

Legal information

4.1 Owner of the documentary heritage (name and contact details) Name

Address

BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL DE URUGUAY.

18 de julio 1790. Postal Code 11.200

Telephone

Facsimile

Email

(598) 2408-50-30

(598) 2400 00 91

subdirecció[email protected]

4.2 Custodian of the documentary heritage (name and contact details if different from the owner) Sala de Materiales Especiales de la BNU (Special Materials Room) . B.A. Adriana de León (Head of the Special Materials Room) 18 de julio 1790. Postal Code 11.200 T. (598) 2409 60 12 int. 236 F (598) 2400 00 91 Email [email protected]

4.3 Legal status Provide details of legal and administrative responsibility for the preservation of the documentary heritage

It is the first and main public library in the country which, by law, receives and preserves all the printed material published in the territory of the Republic. It was founded in 1815, and in May 1816 its heritage included 5,000 volumes among which there were donations from Priest Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga, José Manuel Pérez Castellano, José Raimundo Guerra, and others originally from the San Francisco Convent. At present the archive includes close to 900,000 volumes and approximately 22,000 titles of periodicals. It counts with a Newspaper Library, the Sala Uruguay (Uruguay Room), Special Materials’ Room, general rooms, together with the Literary Archive that keeps custody of manuscripts, correspondence, photographs and objects formerly belonging to the most relevant Uruguayan authors. Mission and Vision 1. Recover, preserve and increase the historical and cultural heritage of the Biblioteca Nacional. 2. Substantially improve services qualitatively and extend the target population. 3. Develop an inter-institutional national and international relations policy. 4. Create knowledge, disseminate it and carry out as much outreach work as is feasible at the different levels of research and training. The Special Materials Room is responsible for custody, and grants access to consult iconography in general. Together with the Taller de Conservación (Conservation Workshop), where the restoration, binding and creation of protective devices are carried out for works of testimonial value, they are the two areas in close contact with the postulated heritage, and in turn depend on: the Subdirección Técnica (Technical Deputy Direction) which in turn also depends on the Dirección General (General Direction), that is part of the Unidad Ejecutora (Executive Unit) 015 of the Ministry of Education and Culture. 6

4.4 Accessibility Describe how the item(s) / collection may be accessed All access restrictions should be explicitly stated below: Encouraging accessibility is a basic objective of MoW. Accordingly, digitization for access purposes is encouraged and you should comment on whether this has been done or is planned. You should also note if there are legal or cultural factors that restrict access. The new technologies have enabled us to reproduce the photographs belonging to the Special Materials Room of the National Library both for the archive and for consultation. This process will require a huge amount of work and time, bearing in mind the volume we are speaking of. The images referred to our nomination have been processed technically, digitized, and are appropriately preserved. We are proud to show the world the bibliographic and iconographic bases through our on-line catalogue in our website: www.bibna.gub.uy where people may access the images. Our own National Library researchers have collaborated together with external researchers in the description of these photographs –and this has contributed to a better collection. In 2007 the then Municipal Photography Centre, having been informed of its value, requested us to participate in an event called “FOTOGRAMA 2007” to exhibit these pictures. A multidisciplinary team worked with great enthusiasm and dedication to tackle this task, that not only allowed us realize the exhibition but also gave rise to a publication and two CDs containing the data base together with the images. We enclose a copy of the book “La Guerra del Paraguay en Fotografías” (The Paraguay War in Pictures). They were later digitized once again improving the resolution and adjusting the tones -in collaboration and with the advice obtained from the Centro de Fotografía- for an exhibition at the said Centre; this currently allows us to count with an excellent version of those XIXth century albumens.

4.5 Copyright status Describe the copyright status of the item(s) / collection Where copyright status is known, it should be stated. However, the copyright status of a document or collection has no bearing on its significance and is not taken into account in determining whether it meets the criteria for inscription. This collection is in the Public Domain.

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5.0 Assessment against the selection criteria

5.1 Authenticity. Is the documentary heritage what it appears to be? Have identity and provenance been reliably established? All historians, investigators and especially experts in photographic archives have defined this collection as authentic. There are records in the Administrative Archive of the Biblioteca Nacional confirming its origin and provenance. Is the document what it seems? The iconographic set on the Triple Alliance War, in custody for more than six decades in the National Library, is a first class visual and documentary material to investigate the conflict that developed between 1864-1870, and encompassed the vast South American region occupied by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Uruguayan and foreign scholars have worked on this documentary set systematically since it was purchased by the Biblioteca Nacional. One such example is the Paraguayan historian Julio César Chaves who worked with the Bate & Co. photographs since 1950 together with other original items taken by an anonymous photographer and which are currently considered the best known and most original examples of the whole iconographic set. Furthermore: their use and dissemination has occurred prior to the purchase by the BN, as historian Fernández Saldaña published different approaches to the subject in the Uruguayan periodical press during the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s, especially using the Portrait Cabinet and Carte de Visite formats of what was then his private collection. Have its identity and provenance been established in reliable manner? Most of the iconographic set items arise from donations from private collections, and in lesser degree from acquisitions through procurement procedures carried out by different Library administrations. Descriptions included in the catalogue have been by technical staff from the Special Materials Department. The historical appraisal and all the relevant research have been carried out by the Research Department, which contributes to provide qualified information to each record. Similarly, specialists form outside the Biblioteca Nacional, who have worked advising on the characteristics and origin of the material (photographer, medium, topic, historical significance, etc.) have also contributed. 5.2 World significance Is the heritage unique and irreplaceable? Would its disappearance constitute and harmful impoverishment of the heritage of humanity? Has it created great impact over time and/or within a particular cultural area of the world? Has it had great influence (positive or negative) on the course of history? The iconographic set on the Paraguay War, also known as War Against Paraguay, Triple Alliance War, Guazú (Great, in Guarani) War and Illustrated War, constitutes the first image archive of a war in the region. That terrible and great conflagration -which extended all along the River Plate basin since the last days of 1864 until the 1st March 1870 and culminated with the death of Marshall Francisco Solano López in Cerro Corá and the extermination and dismemberment of the Paraguayan Nation- was an exceptional event given its repercussions on the national identity of the four countries involved: Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and 8

Brazil. At global level it undoubtedly also had repercussions, mainly for the major Powers such as England -that suffered the consequences in their stock of raw materials in the midst of the second stage of the Industrial Revolution and which together with France played a leading role both at diplomatic and economic level. As stated by Susan Sontag in her book Sobre la fotografía (On Photography, published in Barcelona (Debolsillo, 2008), since the invention of cameras in 1839 photography has always accompanied death. The coverage of the Crimean War was thus carried out, and at the beginning of 1855 Roger Fenton initiated his work in the battlefields, leaving a large collection of photographic images of the aforementioned conflict. This was followed by attenuated approaches during the Rebellion of the Cipayos (1857-1858), the Second Opium War in China in 1860, following which an endless number of conflicts would count with the new technology so that the contemporary people interested could have access to the rigors and horrors of war. As for coverage in the Americas, the Paraguay War was -together with the wars in Mexico and United States, the Argentine Unification War (1861), the American Civil War (1863-1865); and the Uruguayan Civil War in 1863-1865- the fourth warring conflict to count with photographic records.

5.3 Comparative criteria: Does the heritage meet any of the following tests? (It must meet at least one of them.)

5.3.1.Time Is the document evocative of its time (which may have been a time of crisis, or significant social or cultural change? Does it represent a new discovery? Or is it the “first of its kind”? The aforementioned heritage evokes a historical period which still requires a investigation to enable the reconstruction of this section of the region’s history that involves the whole region. They are unique documents and their dissemination will allow the world to acknowledge a part of History that isn’t yet studied in educational centers in its real dimension and as a historical event of gravitational importance for four nations in South America. The photographs show the war scenario, describe the physical conditions, the locations where it took place. They are a clear example of the complexity of the said historical period where even the incipient nations were taking shape -their power struggles, the outstanding characters, the development of the cultural and industrial media, and, more particularly, manifestations in favor or against the social collectives. For all the previously mentioned reasons it is a set which represents the history of this region of the world during the 1864-1870 period –with all that came before and later repercussions that reach our present day period.

5.3.2 Place Does the document contain crucial information about a locality important in world history and culture? For example, was the location itself an important influence on the 9

events or phenomena represented by the document? Does it describe physical environments, cities or institutions that have since vanished? In what sense is it pertinent to mention this historical iconography preserved in the Uruguayan National Library as if they were historical documents, especially the collection of photographs regarding the subject? A. Fernández Labeque and other researchers write the following in this regard: “We might even say that photography currently should be considered as an ancillary discipline of modern Historical Science, as it began to form part of the basic sources that enable research in this field of knowledge since it appeared. (Fernández Labeque et al., 1979) The iconographic material shows scenes and characters of the Paraguay War, and it is possible to appreciate camps, building and battlefields from mid-1866 to 1868, and which currently correspond to populated centers or places that still remain uninhabited in the Republic of Paraguay –they specifically evoke these warring actions during which thousands of fighters of the four nations involved in the conflict died nearly 150 years ago. This conflict, we insist, ultimately decided the fate of these four nations .

5..3.3 People Does the cultural context of the document’s creation reflect significant aspects of human behaviour, or of social, industrial, artistic or political development? Or does it capture the essence of great movements, transitions, advances or regression? Does it illustrate the lives of prominent individuals in the above fields? A selection of photographs in the Carte de Visite format, and also some of those belonging to the Bate & Co. series, in a larger format, show the different characters and nations intervening in the Paraguay War. There are images of the leaders of the three allied nations (Pedro II, Bartolomé Mitre and Venancio Flores) and of Marshall Francisco Solano López, a central character of the five-year period, together with others of politicians, diplomats, military men and Brazilian, Argentina, Paraguayan an Uruguayan citizens. Photography spread more than any other medium through personal visiting cards (Disderi, 1855); their exchange stimulated the habit of collecting them and the appearance of elaborate albums adapted to this aim which at the time basically served to show them in society – although, as against what occurred with a proto-form of photography such as the daguerreotype, reserved for the better-off sectors of society in the mid-XIXth century, this did not exclude the less favored classes.

5.3.4 Subject and theme Does the subject matter of the document represent particular historical or intellectual developments in the natural, social and human sciences? Or in politics, ideology, sport or the arts? Material and Subject Matter As has been previously stated, the iconographic set undoubtedly represents the subject of the Paraguay War (1864-1870). These are historical documents which at the same time enable the study of other issues such as: the social and economic conditions of all those involved, 10

geographical aspects of the region, mores and habits, and more. The photographic technique is the subject matter of specialists and people responsible for preserving photographic collections. We shouldn’t forget either, that each image generates a work of artistic value -an aspect which deserves a separate analysis, and for this reason they have been used to provide audio-visual support.

Based on these images it has been possible to reconstruct the main events occurring during the period. At present we are prepared to study this topic without falling into the ideological distortions that, to a greater o lesser extent, have permeated all the sides acting throughout the conflict and that have remained in time. It seems feasible to think that with this first step taken to make the archive available, it will be possible to open and disseminate them to the four countries involved. Different images are activated or deactivated according to circumstances and changing patterns of sensibility and the debate of ideas. In “El poder de la imagen”, published in Buenos Aires by the Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2012, Laura Maloseti warns us about the power of images given their capacity to persist in time in the memory of their viewers. This power of attraction called the pregnancy of form, which has often been questioned throughout the History of Art, makes their trajectory unpredictable after they have been launched into the historical arena. This power likewise suggests us that when we are discussing images it becomes necessary to ask: What was their function? What is the relationship between the photographer and his object? What sorts of transactions are involved in their creation process? What interests, motives and needs lead to register those events? As regards the War Against Paraguay, and moreover when speaking of images, there is still a great need for further research. It is a subject that should be included in the syllabus of the educational system, where it shall be necessary to put them into question, as is the case for all historical documents when used as didactic tools. The idea is to help students to imagine this past. Nothing better than images to represent the past and thus manage to work out the individual elements entailed in the concept of teaching. Images bear witness to the organization and staging of major and minor events: battles, sieges, surrenders, strikes, murders, coronations, celebrations, etc. They are what we might call eye-witnesses: their function consists in facilitating the task of both spectators and narrators, helping to make certain actions more readily recognizable to the observer. Images allow us to imagine the past more vividly. Although the captions also offer us important clues. The images themselves are the best guides to understand the power the visual renderings had in past lives. We refer to what Barthes (2007) called “the rhetoric of images” (142), i.e. the manner how they act to persuade viewers to provide a certain interpretation, encouraging them to identify with a winner or with a victim, or rather, placing spectators in the position of eye-witnesses of the event represented. Learning to read images is, therefore, a pending issue in any training that aspires to deepen in the passionate world of teaching present-day students to exercise their freedom, awareness and responsibility as free citizens. If all wars are cruel, they become even more so when it is possible to place before the later generations all the horror proper to them. As attested by the hundreds of bodies piled in the trenches, or what becomes even still more moving, the hundreds of corpses accumulated during this war. 11

It is probably in these pictures that we realize that the camera has abandoned an illusory objectivity that was never really such, given that the choice of the subject to be captured, its framing and approach entails an implicit parti pris that is conveyed to whoever contemplates the outcome of the work.

5.3.5.Form and style Does the document have outstanding aesthetic, stylistic or linguistic value? Or is it a typical exemplar of a type of presentation, custom or medium? Is it an example of a disappeared or disappearing carrier or format? The main core of the documentary set (The War Against Paraguay, Bate & Co. Series, Montevideo, 1866), is a collection of albumens resulting from the process achieved with wet collodion and glass plates, to obtain albumens (thus called because the paper is impregnated with a mixture of egg-white, potassium bromide and acetic acid which after drying sensitizes in silver nitrate -Cuarerolo, Soldados de la Memoria, p. 153) stuck on a cardboard passe-partout including relevant data regarding their contents. Following an exhaustive investigation, and with the support of the propaganda of the period and reports about the photographer Javier López’s history (ruling out Esteban López to whom these pictures had been previously attributed until a few years ago recently), they have been instrumental to reach certain conclusions regarding the inventory of this photographic series. According to the specialists, some of these photographs are the best known images of the conflict. According to Toral: “The most impressive picture of the whole set, and perhaps of any war, is however, the one called ‘Pile of Paraguayan corpses’ that specifically portrays the dried up bodies of soldiers scarcely covered with clothes, probably unburied victims of the fighting on the 24th May 1866.” (André de Amaral Toral “Entre retratos e cadáveres: a fotografia na Guerra do Paraguai”). Something similar occurs with The death of Colonel Palleja, according to Ricardo Salles, maybe the best picture taken during the conflagration. It was taken on request from General Venancio Flores by Javier López Flores in the Uruguayan camp on the 18th July 1866, the very same day Palleja died. The officials are identified, not so the soldiers belonging to the Oriental Batallón “Florida” while attending the wake for their chief’s remains covered with the Uruguayan flag

5.3.6.Social/ spiritual/ community significance: Application of this criterion must reflect living significance – does documentary heritage have an emotional hold on people who are alive today? Is it venerated as holy or for its mystical qualities, or reverenced for its association with significant people and events? (Once those who have revered the documentary heritage for its social/ spiritual/ community significance no longer do so, or are no longer living, it loses this specific significance and may eventually acquire historical significance.) 12

The impact produced even today is quite different for a Brazilian or Argentine citizen compared with a Paraguayan national. The fact that most of the photographs were taken in Paraguay, and that Paraguay was the country which suffered the worst consequences of the great conflagration, strikes a difference and makes the Guarani popular feeling more sensitive, transforming these images into icons due to their extreme spiritual and collective significance. This explains why the Museo del Barro in Asuncion, has reproduced part of the Biblioteca Nacional’s heritage in a book of photographs, the first to be entirely dedicated to them. For Uruguayans, the image evoking the death of León de Palleja, a Spanish military man and writer, enrolled in the Oriental forces and whose field diary is a classic of Uruguayan literature, continues to be a central episode of the actions carried out by a small contingent representing the Republic in the conflict. 6.0 Contextual information

6.1.- Rarity We do not hesitate to qualify some of the photographs that form part of the Biblioteca Nacional’s heritage related with the Paraguay War as extremely rare. Indeed, some of the items in custody in the Special Materials Room become especially unique as there aren’t any similar collections in regional iconographic repositories. This feature therefore allows us to qualify a significant portion of this iconographic set of the Triple Alliance War as rare. Another important aspect is the fact they belong to a documentary series. The “War Againstt Paraguay” series is of considerable value because it is the largest known collection of its kind. There hasn’t been any larger collection carried out by a single photographer during the period. It includes over 40 works. This was a company from Montevideo that went to Paraguay to carry out the coverage; since then they became the most representative images of the conflict, due to their dissemination and originality. We insist on the fact that no other photographer of the war period may rival with Javier López and the other Bate & Co. photographers who accompanied him in this enterprise. We must add something further: the photographic work carried out by Bate & Co. received the support and sponsorship of the Uruguayan government at the time. As regards the documentary series, it is hard to find a complete collection of the “War Against Paraguay” series. In 2008 the Biblioteca Nacional published a research paper gathering its own iconographic archive together with that of the Museo Histórico Nacional in order to work jointly on the two public Uruguayan repositories that depend on the Ministry of Education and Culture, and thus officially enable the possibility of offering the two collections with all the necessary comments. We enclose a copy. 6.2.- Integrity It was essential to manage to create this other great iconographic repository –historically constituted in a similar way as that of the Biblioteca Nacional- in order to solve the problem posed by a Spanish specialist in photography regarding all photographic series’: “Another important relational attribute, especially in the field of documentary photography , is due to the fact that a picture belongs to a series or reportage. All photographers know that one practically never takes a single picture of anything; one rather surrounds, explores and represents it from diverse angles and using several approaches. Maybe later, one chooses a picture and makes it public. But the rest remain in one’s archive. Many old photographs have been torn, due to different reasons, from their original series’; and if we want to understand them better as bearers of information it is important to know the other remaining pictures taken.” (Félix del 13

Valle Gastaminza “Dimensión documental de la fotografía” Universidad Complutense de Madrid , 2002) The best thing would be to gather all the collections scattered all over the world in private and public collections in one single data base.

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