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The idea of the Fototeca (Picture File) was presented in 1985 by Fidias Alvarez and Francisco Pinaud during a meeting of the Centro de Historia, but it wasn't developed. In 1987 the Banco de la República
proposed a photographic exhibition about the progress of the city during the 20th century. Dorothy Johnson de Espinosa was the only one available to do this job, and with the help of Patricia Peterman de Cozzarelli started to collect pictures everywhere.
A group of panoramic views taken by Scadta company, Jaspe and other photographers already existed. Family albums of Doña Conchita
Lemaitre de Tono, Mary Martínez de Torres and Elena de la Espriella were also presented.
Afterwards, the mayor Doctor Domingo Rojas, and Fabián de la Espriella,
manager of Avianca, thought it would be of interest to show the collection during a tourist promotion in Spain, so it stayed 3 weeks in Madrid and 3 weeks in Cartagena de Levante. Upon its return on November of 1988, Dorothy decided to continue with the idea of the file and with the support of Doctor Eduardo Lemaitre and Claudia de la
Espriella (Manager of Corporación Nacional de Turismo at the time) and the Fototeca was installed in a room at the Casa del Marqués de
Valdehoyos. Without a pattern of such a project she invented a classification of themes with cards and envelopes for the negatives.
During all this time the Fototeca has been growing thanks to the pictures lent by the people of Cartagena. We have received many praises from the public about the pictures and the historical information and many persons have presented interesting pictures after reading the Lente de la Nostalgia and its reason of being. |
