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C. B. Waite

Charles Betts Waite (December 19, 1861 – March 22, 1927) was an American photographer who worked in Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. He signed his work C. B. Waite, and his full name is often mistakenly stated as Charles Burlingame Waite.^[1][2]

Personal life and career[edit]

Born on December 19, 1861, in Ohio^[3][a] to William and Ann (née Dawson) Waite.^[6][7][b] Waite's brother, Frank Dawson Waite, was editor of the San Diego Sun newspaper from 1887 to 1910.^[4][8][9] Charles Betts Waite moved to California by June 1881, when he was working with photographer Henry Ellis Coonley in the San Diego region.^[10][11] In the 1890s, Waite's photographs of Southern California ranches and landscapes appeared in the magazine Land of Sunshine, and he was contracted by railroad companies to provide views of Arizona and New Mexico.^[12] Waite's only child, a daughter, was born in 1885.^[4]

He worked in Los Angeles as a photographer for Burdick and Company in his late twenties.^[5] Waite owned his own studio, having gained a reputation for his work as a landscape photographer. When he was 35, about 1896, he was married^[5] to Alice M. Cooley, who was born in Missouri.^[4]

He traveled to Mexico City and in May 1897 established a photography studio there,^[3][5] during the Porfirio Díaz government. He became part of Porfirian society, taking photographs of many in the ruler's circle. He was among a group of expatriate photographers (such as Winfield Scott and fellow San Diegans Ralph Carmichael and Percy S. Cox) working in Mexico in the first decade of the 20th century. Waite traveled throughout Mexico, exploring archaeological sites and the countryside.^[1]

[Waite’s life] corresponds with that of adventurers, brave explorers with romantic spirits and materialistic outlooks, who toured the hitherto unknown world, discovering their riches and inventing paradises.

— Francisco Montellano, author of C. B. Waite, fotógrafo^[1]

His works were published in books, travel magazines, and on post cards, having contracted with the Sonora News Company.^[5] He also worked for several Mexican newspapers, and he documented United States scientific expeditions in Mexico.^{[citation needed]} The images often included scenic Mexican images and the country's native residents.^[5] Many of Waite's photographs depict railroads, parks, archaeological sites, and business enterprises.

Perhaps anticipating the development of a railroad line from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, linking Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos (Puerto México), he purchased about 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) of land in Veracruz. The subject of many of his works, he lost the scenic property during the Mexican Revolution.^[13]

Waite retained his American citizenship, traveling to the United States regularly from 1897 to 1918.^[3] Alice Cooley Waite died in Mexico City in June, 1923.^[14] Later that year, Waite moved back to Los Angeles,^[5] where he died on March 22, 1927.^[15]

Works[edit]

Waite's photographs of the southwestern United States and Mexico can be seen in a number of collections, including the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens;^[5] University of New Mexico's Center for Southwest Research;^[17] Princeton University Library's Collections of Western Americana;^[18][19] the Latin American Library of Tulane University;^[20] the Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin;^[21] the Eugene P. Lyle, Jr. Photographs, University of Oregon;^[22] the DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University;^[23] and at the Tomás Rivera Library at University of California, Riverside.^[24]

Waite's work has appeared in exhibitions, including "Mexican Life and Culture During the Porfiriato: The Photography of C.B. Waite, 1898-1913," at the Southwest Museum, Los Angeles (1991) and "Mexico: From Empire to Revolution" at the Getty Institute (2000-2001).^[25][26] Some of his photographs are represented in the digital collection "A Nation Emerges: 65 Years of Photography in Mexico".^[27]

Critical assessment of Waite's work focuses on his representation of poverty in Mexican society in relation to the industrialization and modernization projects of the Porfirio Díaz government.^[28][29][30]

Gallery[edit]

• 
  Pot vendor, 1902. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Native child, 1907. Library of Congress
• 
  Gathering pulque, 1902. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Mitla archeological ruins. 1901. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Pyramid of the Sun. Teotihuacan. 1908. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Pulque hacienda near Mexico City. 1904. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Banana plantation. Ricon Grande Orizaba. 1905. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Moctezuma beer brewery, Orizaba. 1905. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Homes for factory workers, Juanacatian, Jalisco. 1907. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Barca station. Mexican Central Railway. 1904. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Pan American excursion on the Metlac bridge. 1904. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
• 
  Rio Blanco factory near Orizaba. 1905. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Abel, Juan C.; Thomas Harrison Cummings; Wilfred A. French; A. H. Beardsley (1906). Photo-era Magazine. A.H. Beardsley. pp. 343, 347, 350.
• Bulletin of the Pan American Union. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1910.
• Casas, Benigno (2010). "Charles B. Waite y Winfield Scott : lo documental y lo estético en su obra fotográfica". Dimensión antropológica (in Spanish). 48: 221–244. ISSN 1405-776X.
• Debroise, Olivier. Mexican Suite: A History of Photography in Mexico. Trans. Stella de Sá Rego. Austin: University of Texas Press 2001. ISBN 0-292-71611-7
• Montellano, Francisco; Waite, C. B. (1994). C.B. Waite, fotógrafo : una mirada diversa sobre el México de principios del siglo XX. México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes : Grijalbo. ISBN 968-29-7613-8.
• Montellano, Francisco; Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (México) (2011). Charles B. Waite : la época de oro de las postales en México (in Spanish). México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Dirección General de Publicaciones. ISBN 978-607-455-647-6. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Mraz, John (July 1, 2010). Looking for Mexico: Modern Visual Culture and National Identity. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-9220-0.
• Mraz, John (April 18, 2012). Photographing the Mexican Revolution: Commitments, Testimonies, Icons. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-74283-3.
• Murguia, Alejandro (2013). A Little Piece of Mexico, The Postcards of Guillermo Kahlo and His Contemporaries Paperback. Last Edition. ISBN 978-0-615-92407-6.
• Romo, Marta; Waite, C. B. (September 1987). Por el agua van las niñas (in Spanish). México: Libros del Rincon. ISBN 968-29-1528-7. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Spence, Lewis (c. 1913). The Myths of Mexico and Peru. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to C. B. Waite.

• Charles Betts Waite, Library of Congress