Abstract

DAVILA, Lena. A disputed legacy. The Boggiani Collection and the Robert Lehmann-Nitsche-Vojtěch Frič litigation. Runa [online]. 2020, vol.41, n.2, pp.279-299. ISSN 1851-9628.  http://dx.doi.org/10.34096/runa.v41i2.8286.

The article examines the dispute between Robert Lehmann-Nitsche and Alberto Vojtěch Frič about Guido Boggiani’s property rights. A series of written documents released in the Historical Archive of the La Plata Museum and in the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin are analyzed. In 1901 Guido Boggiani died, leaving in Argentina and Paraguay a large quantity of materials produced during his expeditions. In 1904, Lehmann-Nitsche published La Colección Boggiani de Tipos Indígenas de Sudamérica Central, which brought together a series of photographs in postcard format taken by Boggiani during his travels. The work earned Lehmann-Nitsche recognition of a scientific-academic space, but sparked litigation initiated by Frič. Underlying the dispute the debate around the disinterested, universal character, free of religious, moral and political values ​​of a discipline in the process of consolidation at the local level. The relevance of this type of episode in the characterization of the scope and meaning that is attributed to the scientific ethos in each age is shown.

Keywords : Boggiani’s Colletion; Lehmann-Nitsche; Frič; Dispute; Postal photography.

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