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Peter Paul Mackey Collection

 Collection

Scope and Contents

Peter Paul Mackey was a British Dominican priest and theologian, amateur archaeologist and photographer, who spent most of his life in Rome where he died in 1935.

The Peter Paul Mackey collection dates from the 1890s to the 1910s. The first mention of a set of negatives belonging to the Dominican Father appears in the BSR Annual report, 1915-1916. At that time, the collections of photographs owned or acquired by the BSR was stored in the Librarian's office adjoining the newly built Library designed by the celebrated architect Sir Edwin Lutyens; the report also adds that "similar cupboards are placed in the type-writer's office to hold the collection of negatives (which include the valuable negatives of the Campagna, on loan from the Rev. Father Mackey, O.S.B.)". These negatives are yet untraced, and certainly were returned to their legitimate proprietor at some point, but a detailed hand-written list dated 23 March 1909, preserved in the BSR Archive, reveals valuable information about their arrangement and size. It is certain that this varied, ranging from 6x9 cm to 13x18 cm; some of them had already been stored in boxes and others still needed to be organised. Unfortunately, there is no mention of the date when the current set of 1,838 silver bromide prints were deposited at the BSR, but we may assume it was between 1915 and 1925, when Thomas Ashby was still Director. The loose photographs were presumably stored in envelopes and were accompanied by a detailed hand-written catalogue saying "Photographs of Peter Paul Mackey O.P. deposited in British School, Rome. PP. 1-42: Central Italy, except Rome; 45-51: Roma; 53, 54: Southern Italy". These images, taken by Mackey during his journeys over the breadth and length of Italy and Greece, are mostly concerned with archaeological sites and ancient remains, though the documentation of a contemporary Rome which was undergoing massive excavation campaigns and by transforming the urban landscape is unprecedented.

The photographs preserved in the BSR Photographic Archive also include 58 prints mounted on cardboard but severely faded which are not listed in the above-mentioned catalogue. From this source, we can infer a lot of information about dates, places and subject matters which were scrupulously annotated by Mackey himself. In addition to the photographs taken in Italy there are also pictures of archaeological sites and ancient remains in Greece, a country he visited between 1901 and 1902.

Father Mackey also left a thorough description of the apparatus, camera and lenses adopted during his journey in Sardinia at the end of the 19th century.

Reference number

PA-PPM

Dates

  • Majority of material found within 1890 - 1910

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by a fair use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the BSR.

Biographical note

Peter Paul Mackey (1851-1935) was a British Dominican Father who is remembered for his monumental endeavour on the Leonine edition of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. His obituary, published in 1936, remains the main source of information of his life. Born at Erdington, near Birmingham, in 1851, he received his Catholic education at St Mary's Seminar, Oscott College, and was ordained priest in 1877. In his early 30s he moved to Rome where, in addition to his scholarly work, he taught archaeology and geology at the Collegio Angelico. Peter Paul Mackey was also a founder member of the Roman zoological garden and an assiduous and enthusiastic member of the British and American Archaeological Society, founded by https://archive.bsr.ac.uk/agents/people/176 show=”John-Henry Parker” actuate=”onrequest” in 1865, and he became Honorary Member in 1896-1897. He was elected an Associate of the British School at Rome in 1906.

It was his interest in archaeology, in fact, that prompted the Dominican Father to join the newly founded institution, whose members were mostly wealthy expatriates well connected to the political, diplomatic and cultural milieu of Rome at the turn of the 20th century. Mackey lectured very frequently at the Society's and used his own photographs to illustrate his discoveries. At the meetings and during the excursions in the Roman Campagna organised by the Society, Mackey also enjoyed the company of the young Thomas Ashby and of two English sisters, Agnes (1856-1940) and Dora Bulwer (1864-1948), all of them amateur photographers and avid users of a medium that had been increasingly becoming more accessible to wider audiences. At that time, there were numerous amateur photographers in Rome, a city that appealed to foreing and Italian artists as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Technical advances in photographic materials allowed a rapid expansion of the mass market and certainley Mackey was among those keen amateurs who became aware of the importance of this medium, especially for archaeological research.

Extent

1,896 Photographic Prints (17 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Original set of photographs taken by Peter Paul Mackey (1851-1935) and deposited at the British School at Rome in the early 1910s.

Arrangement

The photographic prints in the Peter Paul Mackey Collection were arranged by geographical location and for each location the author himself numbered the items starting from number '1' every time. The hand-written catalogue also includes photographs from Greece and Sardinia, the Italian region which Mackey visited in 1898 and 1899. The photographs were subsequently assigned a progressive new number in order to facilitate the cataloguing of the collection. Some photographic prints are missing.

Physical Location

The Peter Paul Mackey Collection is located in the New basement (Photographic Archive, cupboard n. 6).

Provenance

Although it is not clear about when the photographs of Peter Paul Mackey were presented to the BSR, this might have happended between 1915 and 1925. Furter research about this donation or loan still has to be done.

Bibliography

  • Olivo, P. (2000) Immagini dal passato: la Sardegna archeologica di fine Ottocento nelle fotografie inedite del padre domenicano inglese Peter Paul Mackey. Sassari: Carlo Delfino.
  • Coates-Stephens, R. (2009) Immagini e Memoria: Rome in the photographs of Father Peter Paul Mackey, 1890-1901. Rome: British School at Rome.

Processing Information

Processed by Alessandra Giovenco, November 2022.

Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the British School at Rome Archive & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Via Gramsci, 61
Rome 00197 Italy