NEWSROOM
Historic
Viosca Photos Available Online
May
30, 2008
BATON ROUGE - Percy
Viosca was one of Louisiana’s most acclaimed biologists
and conservationists. He also was an accomplished photographer,
capturing a visual record of the state’s natural resources.
Nearly 50 years after his death, Viosca’s photographs –
once boxed-up and tucked away on a shelf – are available
at the click of a mouse.
The Hill Memorial Library
at LSU began scanning more than 1,100 Viosca images not long after
they were salvaged by Louisiana Sea Grant and LSU AgCenter Extension
agent Mark Schexnayder. Sea Grant funded the archiving project.
“I recovered
a lot of the photos from the basement of the old Wildlife and
Fisheries office in the French Quarter before the building was
converted to the Louisiana Supreme Court headquarters,”
said Schexnayder. “They were in Percy’s old files
that were destined for a landfill. Some of the photos also came
from Yvonne Viosca, Percy’s late daughter.”
Viosca, born in 1892,
was a native of New Orleans and earned bachelor’s and master’s
degrees from Tulane University. During his career, he founded
the Southern Biological Supply Co., which provided crawfish and
other aquatic specimens for research and commercial use. He was
curator of reptiles, amphibians and fishes for the Louisiana State
Museum, served as the Louisiana Board of Health entomologist and
was director of the Division of Fisheries for the Louisiana Department
of Conservation. Viosca also was one of the country’s first
freelance biologists.
“Viosca’s
contribution to the understanding of the state’s natural
resources was considerable,” said Mark Martin, photographic
collections archivist with Hill Memorial Library. “He was
lauded as one of the state’s greatest biologists by Tulane
just before his death in 1961.
“The photographs
he took not only recorded flora, fauna and other natural resources,
but they also captured some of the state’s cultural history.
There is an extensive number of photos of irises in their native
habitat and under cultivation. He photographed the flood of 1927
in the Caernarvon vicinity. There are photos of geese and ducks,
boats, bridges and water recreation.
“The collection
also contains a number of images where he had Boy Scouts build
a dam across Sandy Creek to see what impact it would have on fish
populations. There are even a few photos from his personal life
and one postcard,” said Martin.
Those visiting the
online photo collection will be pleased to see many crisp Viosca
images that have almost a fine art quality. Nearly 900 negatives
of 1,116 images were available to be turned into digital prints.
The bulk of the photos were taken in the 1920s to 1940s. A few
of the photos date to the early 1960s.
Visitors to the online
collection also will have the ability to leave comments, something
that excites Martin. “Although there were notes with some
of the files and photos, we’re librarians, not botanists
or biologists, and can’t say exactly what type of plant
is in the photo or if an image is of a salt, brackish or freshwater
marsh,” said Martin.
“This system
allows viewers to leave comments and tell us about the plants,
animals and even the places in the photos.
“I imagine some
of the places pictured don’t even exist now. This archive
gives us an opportunity to look at some areas of the state as
they were 80 years ago and compare them to how they are today,”
Martin added.
Viosca’s
photos are accessible through the Louisiana Digital Library -
http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/.
Visitors should click on the “Institution” link on
the left side of the screen and then select “Louisiana State
University Libraries” to reach the Viosca collection.
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