This series consists of 14 (8x10 in.) black-and-white negatives of Lacandón natives, their lifestyle in the jungle (including hunting, cooking, and the harvesting of bark), and one image of a mural at Bonampak. They were taken in 1946 under the aegis of the United Fruit Company and collected by Charles Morrow Wilson (1905–1977) for use in publications.

The negatives themselves are the result of a photographic journey into the heart of the Chiapas region when Giles G. Healey was commissioned by the United Fruit Company to document the region and the native peoples therein. While filming in the Chiapas rainforests for what would become the 1949 release of Maya Through the Ages, Healey earned the trust of the reticent Lacandón natives. On several occasions Healey and a number of colleagues were brought to visit some of the abandoned Maya ruins that still served as religious sites for the local populations. It was on one such trek into the jungle in May 1946 that Healey and his guide Jose Pepé Chan Bor serendipitously discovered a structure containing the most significant and complete pre-Columbian mural paintings ever found. The murals, which were unknown even to the local Lacandón communities, would thrust the site – thereafter known as Bonampak or 'painted wall' in Maya – and the Lacandón themselves into an international spotlight the following year. A number of scientific expeditions returned to the site in the years immediately following, along with illustrators and photographers.

Healey took a plethora of famous photographs upon discovering the ruin and then later in the same year while artists worked to record the murals. A number of these prints and negatives were gathered by Charles Morrow Wilson (1905–1977) for use in publications, and these are the materials present in the collection.

Morrow himself was another documentary employee of the United Fruit Company who wrote at least two articles and a number of books on the region. One image derived from a negative in the collection appears in his 1947 article written for Natural History (Volume 56, Number 8).

This series is arranged in one folder.

1 box

This series consists of approximately 1,500 (medium format, 6 cm.) negatives taken from approximately 1960 to 1964. All of the negatives are black-and-white except nine (located in Box 3, Division 1, 2407-2424: Najá). There are also 15 images on 35 mm. film.

Although taken at different points in time the series represents two distinct subjects: the Lacandón and their jungle environment at the village of Najá taken in approximately 1960, and the religious celebrations of other indigenous Maya peoples taken in 1963 and 1964.

A majority of the images are of religious festivals, possibly Carnaval, which is celebrated simultaneously in a number of indigenous villages in the Chiapas region just before the Christian season of Lent. Hilt apparently photographed this celebration twice, in 1963 and 1964, in a number of local villages.

The majority of the rest of the series are images of the Lacandón village at Najá, which date from approximately 1960. These images include a number of photographs of Lacandón life, religious ceremonies, members of the community and most notably the t'o'ohil ("great one") of the time: Chan K'in. There are also images of the Mayan sites at Palenque and Yaxchilan, which most likely also date from 1960.

Other noteworthy images include portraits of friends, scenes from daily Mexican life, museum objects, and miscellaneous sets which make up the rest of the collection, including images of California and what may be personal family photographs.

Lastly, Hilt photographed a well-known advocate of the Lacandón, Gertrude Doby Blom, and perhaps even her husband Frans Blom the archaeologist before his death in 1963. Images of Gertrude ("Trudi") Blom and the Bloms' famous home in San Cristóbal de las Casas – Na Bolom – are located throughout the collection.

This series is arranged into two subseries.

1 linear foot