The collection consists of approximately 900 negatives depicting the art and architecture of Latin American countries, including Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, Mexico and Cuba. The negatives were the product of Dr. Wethey's research focus on Latin American art and architecture starting in the 1940's. The majority of the collection focuses on the art and architecture of Peru, with a secondary focus on Argentina, especially religious architecture, including altars, facades, cloisters, naves, and chapels. The some of the Peruvian art is from the Cuzco school. Many of the negatives have been photographed from books. The artwork includes the work of Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Prilidiano Pueyrredón, Benito Quinquela Martín, and many others.
The collection was rehoused but the original negative sleeves were preserved, complete with the original description. The information written on the original envelopes was transferred to the new sleeves and recorded in an inventory, which is available upon request. The original sleeves are housed in the last two boxes of the collection.
Harold Edwin Wethey was born on April 10, 1902, in Port Byron, New York. He attended Cornell University where he earned his B.A. in Romance Languages. After a brief foray into banking, Wethey changed careers and began his graduate studies at Harvard University in 1930. He earned his master's and doctor's degrees in 1931 and 1934, respectively. During the summer of those same years Wethey studied at the Institute of Art and Archaeology in Paris. His study focused on late Medieval to Baroque art in Spain, its colonies around the world, and the Renaissance in Italy. His first book, about Spanish sculptor Gil de Siloé, was published in 1936. From 1934 to 1938, Dr. Wethey taught at Bryn Mawr and then moved to Washington University in St. Louis. In 1940 Wethey moved to the University of Michigan where he became the chairman of the Fine Arts department (now the History of Art department). He held this position until 1947, but he continued to teach at Michigan until his retirement in 1972. The outbreak of the Second World War forced Wethey to shift the focus of his research, and this was when he began studying Latin American art and architecture. The Department of State sent Dr. Wethey as a visiting professor to the University of Tucuman in Argentina in 1943. The following year, on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, Wethey traveled extensively through Peru and Argentina. Wethey married Alice Luella Sunderland (1910-1998), a fellow art historian. Dr. Harold E. Wethey died on September 22, 1984.
