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Edmund David Osinski Photographs of the Philippines
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Edmund David Osinski (1909-1983) was a U.S military veteran and photographer.
Osinski's service with the Army and Air Force included photographic fieldwork as well as administrative positions in reproduction services, such as the Air Force printing plant at Brookley Air Force Base, Mobile, Alabama, and the John F. Kennedy Space Center's Installation Support, Reproduction Branch, for which he was awarded several awards of distinction.
Early in his career, Osinski served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps. His first assignment was with the Army Pictorial Service in New York, followed by service in Manila in the Philippines from 1931 to 1934. As base photographer, Osinski's duties in Manila were wide-ranging, covering military parades and the visits of military dignitaries, and capturing images of government buildings and landscapes as well as various Indigneous communities.
Throughout his career, Osinski developed multiple photographic printing processes, such as the "Systemat" process, which were adopted by the Air Force and other Department of Defense agencies.
Osinski married Helen Cooper on August 19, 1934; they had nine children.
This collection consists of photographs Edmund David Osinski (1909-1983) took while serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in the early 1930s. Most document individuals, practices, and daily life of Indigenous peoples of the Philippines, particularly the Bontoc/Bontok people, the Kalinga, Ifugao, Itneg, and other Cordilleran, or Igorot, peoples as well as Mangyan-affiliated groups and Moro people, among others. Also included are photographs of landscapes, buildings, and those relating to the U.S. military presence in the country.
Captions and descriptions of photographs include racist and dehumanizing language.
Gift of Karen Roy, daughter of Edmund Osisnki, in 2022 (AM 2023-034).
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
This collection was processed by Faith Charlton in December 2022. Finding aid written by Faith Charlton in December 2022 using information provided by Osinski's daughter, Karen Roy. During 2022 processing, two nitrate negatives were digitized and then destroyed.
A few photographs whose subjects fell outside the scope of the collection were removed during 2022 processing.
Subject
- Igorot (Philippine people)
- Bontoks (Philippine people)
- Mangyan (Philippine people) -- Social life and customs. -- Sources
Place
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Author
- Faith Charlton
- Finding Aid Date
- December 2022
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
Collection Inventory
Captions or descriptions of photographs include racist and dehumanizing language.
Physical Description2 folders
Includes two photographs with the creator-based titles (that were marked on original enclosures), "Moonlight Scene on Bay with Caraboo" with the note "personal copy," and "Lake Taal and Nipa Shack (1932)" with the note "personal."
The original nitrate negatives were destroyed upon digtization due to their hazardous chemistry.
Physical Description1 folder