By Nicole Milano
Title: Irving Penn Photographic Collection, 1944-1945
ID: RG2/003
Creator: Penn, Irving
Extent: 0.9 Cubic Feet. More info below.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged by physical medium into two series, and the corresponding subseries are arranged topically and alphabetically into folders as follows: Series 1: Photographs, 1944-1945; Subseries 1A: Personnel; Subseries 1B: British Personnel; Subseries 1C: Italy; Subseries 1D: India-Burma; Series 2: Negatives, 1944-1945; Subseries 2A: Personnel; Subseries 2B: British Personnel; Subseries 2C: Italy; Subseries 2D: India-Burma. The series and subseries correspond to the series and subseries names in RG2/002, the World War II Photographic Collection of the American Field Service where the Penn photographic prints and negatives were originally housed.
If there is a photograph and negative of the same image available, it is stored in a folder with the same title in the corresponding subseries (for example, the negatives for the photographs in the folder “Trip to port of embarkation from Italy to India, boxcar interiors” in Subseries 1C: Italy would be in the “Trip to port of embarkation from Italy to India, boxcar interior” folder in Subseries 2C: Italy.) If the original World War II manila envelope that originally housed the photographic print or negative was available, it was included in the new folder.
Please see the individual series descriptions for additional information.
Languages: English
Irving Penn was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer who served as an ambulance driver and staff photographer with the American Field Service (AFS) during World War II. The Irving Penn Photographic Collection consists of photographic prints and negatives captured by Penn between 1944 and 1945 during his time stationed with AFS units CM 92 and IB 59-T in Italy and India-Burma.
The Irving Penn Photographic Collection consists of photographic prints and negatives captured by Penn between 1944 and 1945 during his time as an ambulance driver and staff photographer stationed with CM 92 and IB 59-T of the American Field Service (AFS) in Italy and India-Burma. The photographic prints and negatives in this collection include posed portraiture of AFS drivers in the 485 and 567 Companies (sometimes containing more than one individual), casual photographs of the drivers and their military peers in the British Eighth Army, the transfer of AFS units from Italy to India-Burma in 1945, platoon headquarters, and interactions with local civilians.
Most of the photographic prints were developed from the negatives in this collection, although there are some photographs with no corresponding negative (including photographs of the air evacuations in Italy in Subseries1C.) Similarly, there are some negatives with no corresponding photograph (including several negatives of soldiers from the British Eighth Army in Subseries 2B and images from General McCreery’s review of 485 Company in Subseries 2C.) Most of the photographs in Series 1 were labeled (verso) by Penn or other AFS staff.
Please see the individual series descriptions for additional information.
Alternate Extent Statement: 3 boxes
Access Restrictions: This collection is open for research. Some photocopies of the original photographs are available, and these are to be used first in place of the originals. For access to the original photographs, permission from the Head Archivist may be needed. Cotton gloves are required for the handling of all photographic material.
Use Restrictions: Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be submitted in writing to the AFS Archives. In the event that this research becomes a source for publication, a credit line indicating the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs is required. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.
Acquisition Method: The photographic prints and negatives in the Irving Penn Photographic Collection were created by Irving Penn while serving as an ambulance driver and staff photographer for the American Field Service in Italy and India-Burma from 1944 to 1945. Penn’s photographic prints and negatives were originally housed with RG2/002, the World War II Photographic Collection of the American Field Service, and were separated at an unknown date by AFS Archives staff as a topical collection.
Appraisal Information: The photographic prints and negatives created by Penn that were donated to the AFS Archives by Joseph P. Brinton III at a later date have been separated and are now part of RG2/016 ,the Joseph P. Brinton III Collection. Additionally, a single photograph taken of Penn on a gondola in Venice by an unknown American Field Service photographer (donated by Hugh Lamberton) has been removed from the Irving Penn Photographic Collection and placed back into RG2/017, the Hugh Lamberton Collection.
Related Materials:
For more photographic prints and negatives from the American Field Service (AFS) and other AFS staff photographers during World War II (including photographs of General McCreery’s farewell review for 567 Company in March 1945), see RG2/002, the World War II Photographic Collection. For more prints by Irving Penn (developed from negatives after the war) see RG2/016, the Joseph P. Brinton III Collection.
For collections outside of the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs, see the Irving Penn paper archives, 1939-1997 at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Preferred Citation: [Identification of item], [Date]; Irving Penn Photographic Collection; Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs, New York, NY
Processing Information: This collection was partially processed by Eleanora Golobic at an unknown date, by Meghan Hardison in 2010, and again by Nicole Milano in 2011. Preliminary finding aid written by Nicole Milano and encoded in EAD in 2011 under the scope of the 2010-2011 Basic Processing grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
This series includes photographs that were taken during Penn’s time with the American Field Service (AFS) in Italy and India-Burma between 1944 and 1945, and contains images of the men in the Central Mediterranean units (with 485 Company) and India-Burma transferred units, although a few also depict the men of 567 Company and other military units (including the British Eighth Army.) Other photographs include air evacuations in Italy, images of AFS ambulances, and local civilians.
This series houses approximately 420 black and white photographs, the bulk of which are 2-1/8” x 2-1/4” (although there are also several 8” x 10” photographs) arranged alphabetically by folder title. Each folder typically contains more than one photograph, many of which were labeled (verso) in pencil or ink by Penn or other AFS staff. The Penn photographic prints were originally housed within Series 1: Photographs of RG2/002, the World War II Photographic Collection of the American Field Service.
For more information, see the individual subseries descriptions.
The bulk of the photographs in this series include personnel shots of American Field Service (AFS) ambulance drivers Penn served with during his time as an AFS ambulance driver and staff photographer in Italy and India-Burma. These images often include “portraits”- posed shots of men (mainly those serving in the 485 Ambulance Company, although there are a few from 567 Company) with the name, rank, and division for each driver noted in pencil and ink on the back of many of the photographs. Many personnel photographs include more than one individual, but were originally labeled by AFS (Penn, or other staff) and filed alphabetically by one specific driver’s last name with the personnel photographs at the AFS headquarters in New York.
The photographs in this subseries were originally housed in the “Personnel” subseries within Series 1: Photographs of RG2/002, the World War II Photographic Collection of the American Field Service.
This subseries includes personnel shots of soldiers and staff in the British Eighth Army who served with the American Field Service in Italy. These images often include “portraits”- posed shots of soldiers and staff serving with the British Eighth Army, with their name noted in pencil and ink on the back of the photographs. Some personnel photographs include more than one individual.
The photographs in this subseries were originally housed in the “British Personnel” folder in the “Italy” subseries within Series 1: Photographs of RG2/002, the World War II Photographic Collection of the American Field Service.
This subseries contains photographic prints taken during Penn’s time as an ambulance driver with CM 92 in Italy (as well as some photographs from trips to Austria), including local landscapes and civilians, pair and group candid shots, and soldiers being loaded into an airplane on a stretcher. The bulk of this subseries includes group shots of ambulance drivers or photographs containing two or more identified ambulance drivers and other personnel, mostly from the Central Mediterranean units within 485 Company (Coy), although a few men and scenes from 567 Coy and the British Eighth Army are depicted as well. Many photographs depict the trip of 485 Coy to their port of embarkation from Italy to India (including train boxcar interior candids), when some of the men from the Central Mediterranean units were transferred to the India-Burma front.
The photographs in this subseries were originally housed in the “Italy” subseries within Series 1: Photographs of RG2/002, the World War II Photographic Collection of the American Field Service.
This subseries includes photographs of Penn’s time spent with the India-Burma transferred units, and include shots of local civilians, scenery, ambulances, and other ambulance drivers.
The photographs in this subseries were housed in the “India-Burma” subseries within Series 1: Photographs of RG2/002, the World War II Photographic Collection of the American Field Service.
