About the Collection
The Mexican Popular Prints Collection is an electronic archive of pictorial materials housed in the Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico General Library.
Most of the prints reproduced here are from a single collection originally
compiled by noted Mexican art historian Fernando Gamboa. An early collector
of Posada’s work, Gamboa contributed to several exhibits, including
the important 1944 show held at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Gamboa
collection consists of lithographs, etchings, and engravings by José
Guadalupe Posada. A small number of prints in this collection have been
attributed to Manuel Manilla or to other, unidentified printmakers.
Many of these were published by the Vanegas Arroyo firm in Mexico City.
The Gamboa collection contains 361 items: broadsides (108), bullfighter
portrait series (5), chapbooks (9), leaflets (19), chapbook covers (12),
and restrikes (208). In addition to the Gamboa Collection (which is
reproduced in its entirety, excepting duplicates), a selection of prints
from two related collections (Manilla and Posada Prints and Mexican
Broadsides) are included here.
The print descriptions include quotations from Ron Tyler’s essay, "Posada’s Mexico," published in the book of the same title. See the bibliography for this and other useful references.
Some items are double-sided prints. Where both sides are reproduced,
the identification number is followed by the letter A to designate the
front side (recto) and B to indicate the back (verso).
The dimensions given in print descriptions are those of illustrations
only. Paper sizes for broadsides are indicated by the following approximate
sheet sizes: half sheet = 30 x 20 cm.; full sheet=40 x 30 cm., double
sheet= 60 x 40 cm. Bullfighter portraits are 16 x 12 cm., chapbooks
approximately 14.5 x 10cm., and chapbook covers approximately 14.5 x
20 cm. Restrikes (printed later from the original blocks) are on off-white
paper measuring approximately 34.5 x 23.5 cm.
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