FROM: HUNTER COLLEGE EAST HARLEM ART GALLERY
Contact: Mariluz Hoyos, Associate Curator mhoyos@hunter.cuny.edu
212. 396.7819
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HUNTER COLLEGE EAST HARLEM ART GALLERY PRESENTS “PICTURING
PUERTO RICO UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF LOUISE
ROSSKAM, 1937-1948,” MAY 11 TH – JULY 21 ST
(New York, NY, May 3, 2012) - The Hunter College East Harlem Art Gallery will present
Picturing Puerto Rico under the American Flag: The Photographs of Louise Rosskam, 1937-
1948 from May 11 th – July 21 st . This exhibition features the work of Louise Rosskam (1910-
2003), an elusive pioneer of the golden age of 20 th
century American documentary photography.
With little concern for credit, Rosskam always insisted that it was the social purpose of her projects that were paramount, not the promotion of her career. The exhibition highlights her most compelling and compassionate images - the photographs she created on the U.S. territory of
Puerto Rico in the New Deal and post-World War II eras. The gallery is located in Hunter
College’s Lois V. and Samuel Silberman School of Social Work building at 2180 Third
Avenue at 119 th Street, Manhattan.
Picturing Puerto Rico is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on Louise Rosskam’s work in
Puerto Rico. It has brought together 60 photographs drawn largely from the Library and
Archives of Centro, Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, as well from the collection of Ani Rosskam and Susan Marchon, and a private collection in Washington, D.C.
The bulk of the exhibition focuses on Rosskam’s exhaustive postwar documentation commissioned by the Office of Information for Puerto Rico (OIPR), the island’s government agency for which she recorded Puerto Rico’s social conditions and its breathtaking transformation from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Louise and Edwin Rosskam bonded strongly as friends and trusted advisors of Luis Muñoz Marín, the charismatic Senate
President, Popular Democratic Party leader, and architect of the 1952 establishment of Puerto
Rico’s status as a Commonwealth (Estado Libre Asociado).
Hunter College President Jennifer J. Raab said, “We are honored to exhibit Louise Rosskam’s extraordinary photographs at the Hunter College East Harlem Gallery. With so many of her images housed at the Library and Archives of Centro, the gallery is an ideal venue to display her

captivating images that recall the economic, social and political challenges that faced Puerto
Rico during the late 1930s and 1940s. We invite the Hunter community and our neighbors in
East Harlem to visit this powerful exhibition.”
New York City is home to one of the nation’s largest Puerto Rican diaspora communities. East
Harlem (El Barrio), a major destination for Puerto Ricans of the postwar Great Migration, remains a place enriched by an increasingly diverse and vibrant Hispanic presence.
Picturing Puerto Rico under the American Flag: The Photographs of Louise Rosskam, 1937-
1948 was guest-curated by Laura Katzman , Associate Professor of Art History, James Madison
University. This exhibition is made possible by the Hunter College East Harlem Art Gallery and the President’s Office, co-sponsored by Centro, Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter
College, CUNY.
About the Gallery:
The Hunter College East Harlem Art Gallery opened its doors in September of 2011 at the
Silberman School of Social Work Building. The gallery offers a space for partnerships between different departments and academic disciplines within our larger college communities. It presents exhibitions and public events that aim to foster academic collaboration at Hunter College while addressing subjects relevant to the East Harlem community, including those related to Latin
America and the Caribbean. For more information, please visit http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/eastharlem-artgallery
###