Jack Rottier photograph collection

Access and use

Location of collection:
George Mason University
2400 Fenwick Library
Special Collections Research Center
Fenwick Library MS2FL
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Mieko Palazzo
Phone: (703) 993-2220
Fax: (703) 993-2669
Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Preferred citation:

Jack Rottier photograph collection, C0003, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
3.5 Linear Feet 10 boxes
Creator:
Rottier, John M. (Jack), 1910-1988
Abstract:
This collection contains 10 boxes of slides, negatives, and prints of photographs taken by National Park Service photographer Jack Rottier, as well as other National Park photographers. Numbering around 2,500 total, the photographs in this collection document politics, culture, and urban beautification in and around Washington, D.C. during the 1960s and 1970s. Subjects include United States presidents from Eisenhower to Ford, Lady Bird Johnson, the Washington Senators baseball team, the National Mall, and various Potomac-region landmarks and parks.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Jack Rottier photograph collection, C0003, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains 10 boxes of slides, negatives, and photographic prints documenting politics, culture, and urban beautification in and around Washington, DC during the 1960s and 1970s. Slides are in color 35mm and 55mm formats, negatives are both color and black and white and range from 35mm strips to 4" x 5", and prints are color and black and white and range in size from 4" x 5" to 11" x 14". Subjects include United States presidents from Eisenhower to Ford, Lady Bird Johnson, the Washington Senators baseball team, the National Mall, and various Potomac-region landmarks and parks. The photographs were taken by Jack Rottier and other National Park photographers.

Series 1: 35mm Slides, contains over 1,000 color slides documenting prominent parks, landmarks, and political figures in the Washington, DC area. Parks featured here include Glen Echo Park, Lady Bird Johnson Park, and the National Mall. Landmarks include the Capitol, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument pictured in different seasons with tulips, daffodils, and cherry blossoms in the foreground. The series also contains slides of several politicians and former presidents, including around 150 slides of Gerald and Betty Ford and their family, 100 slides of Jimmy Carter, and 100 slides of Richard Nixon and his family. Also included are 1 slide of John F. Kennedy, 2 slides of Lyndon Johnson, several slides of Jackie Kennedy, Chuck Robb, Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower, and 14 slides of Lady Bird Johnson whom Rottier documented during her national beautification initiative. Other subjects in this series include the 1979 American Agriculture Movement Farm Strike in DC, a Cherry Blossom Festival from 1974, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, and two Washington Senators baseball games, including a 1969 game with Richard Nixon in the audience and the team's final game on September 30, 1971.

Series 2: 55mm Slides, contains 131 large-format color slides documenting scenery and beautification in the Washington, DC area. Like Series 1, it includes slides of such landmarks as the Capitol, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and various parks in different seasons with tulips, daffodils, and cherry blossoms in the foreground. The series also includes slides of tourists at Oxon Hill Farm in Maryland, hikers on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and marchers at a 1969 anti-war demonstration.

Series 3: Color Negatives, consists of 65 color photographic negatives, ranging in size from 60mm to 5" X 7", which document various Washington, DC area landmarks and politicians. Subjects include the Capitol, a Cherry Blossom Festival from the early 1970s, and several Republican politicians, including senators Carl T. Curtis and Strom Thurmond and governors George Dewey Clyde of Utah, Goodwin Knight of California, and Robert Eben Smylie of Idaho.

Series 4: Large Format Negatives, dates back further than any other series in this collection, containing 137 4" x 5" black-and-white negatives with dozens from the 1950s and 1960s. Subjects include former presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and several former US congressmen. The series also contains negatives of Washington, DC monuments and of political events such as Eisenhower's inauguration and a 1953 congressional baseball game. Other subjects include the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) and the Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA).

Series 5: Small Format Negatives, contains 400 color and black-and-white 35mm negatives documenting Washington, DC area culture and politics. Subjects covered include Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, various Washington, DC area landmarks, a 1971 Cherry Blossom Festival pageant, the Washington Senators' last baseball game in September 1971, and a Wolf Trap concert hall opening also in 1971. The series also contains negatives of Jack Rottier and his family, Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower, and Liz Taylor and John Warner at a fundraiser in Gunston Hall.

Series 6: Medium Format Negatives, contains 475 black-and-white and color 120 film negatives depicting politics, culture, and beautification in Washington, DC. Subjects include Betty and Gerald Ford, John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson and National Capital Parks Director Nash Castro, Chuck Robb and Lynda Bird Johnson, Pat and Richard Nixon, Harry Truman, Spiro Agnew, and Mamie Eisenhower. Also included are negatives of Washington area landmarks, several US senators, a 1970 Washington Metro signing, and an Association of Federal Investigators award ceremony.

Series 7: Small Format Photographs, contains 316 3.5" x 3.5" and 3.5" x 5" photographs, all in color except where specified. Subjects in this series include the beautification of Washington, DC, Lady Bird Johnson with National Capital Parks Director Nash Castro, National Capital Park rangers, and various Washington, DC area landmarks. Political figures in this series include Richard Nixon and Senators Carl T. Curtis, Leonard B. Jordan, and Strom Thurmond. Other subjects include a 1971 Cherry Blossom Festival pageant, a 1978 party of the National Geographic Society, and two of the last Washington Senators baseball games.

Series 8: Large Format Photographs, contains 100 8" x 10" photographs of DC area political events and landmarks, all black and white except where specified. Political figures in this series include Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald and Betty Ford, and Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. This series also contains photographs of various political rallies and demonstrations, including an officially organized 1970 anti-litter rally and the Poor People's Campaign in the spring of 1968.

Series 9: Oversize Photographs, contains 5 11" x 14" photographs, including a photograph of the Washington Monument at night, aerial shots of the Jefferson Memorial and White House, a portrait of John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office, and a photograph of Lady Bird Johnson planting flowers as part of her Washington, DC beautification initiative.

Biographical / historical:

Jack Rottier was a photographer for the National Capital Region of the National Park Service from the early 1960s until he retired in 1975. Rottier was born in Bellaire, Michigan in 1910. He served in the Army in World War II and graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He moved to the Washington area about 1950 as a photographer for the American Forest Products Industries. He later joined the Commerce Department where he photographed trade fairs overseas, and then the Bureau of Land Management in the Interior Department, where he worked until transferring to the Park Service. Throughout his life he was an active member of the C and O Canal Association. In the course of his career with the Park Service, Rottier contributed to the photographic record of Lady Bird Johnson's beautification program and the development of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna. He died in 1988.

Acquisition information:
Donated by Robin Rottier on September 22, 2009.
Processing information:

Processed by Eron Ackerman in 2010. EAD markup completed by Eron Ackerman in April 2010. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in December 2022.

Arrangement:

This collection is organized into 9 series by media format. Each series is arranged alphabetically by subject. Wherever possible, item dates refer to the actual date the photograph was taken. Otherwise, dates indicate the month and year the photograph was developed.

Series
  1. Series 1: 35mm Slides, 1961-1982, bulk 1967-1977 (Boxes 1-3)
  2. Series 2: 55mm Slides, 1965-1976 (Boxes 4-5)
  3. Series 3: Color Negatives, 1957-1979 (Boxes 5)
  4. Series 4: Large Format Negatives, 1950s-1970s (Box 5)
  5. Series 5: Small Format Negatives, 1960s-1970s, bulk 1970-1976 (Box 6)
  6. Series 6: Medium Format Negatives, circa 1966-1976 (Box 6)
  7. Series 7: Small Format Photographs, 1957-1983 (Box 7)
  8. Series 8: Large Format Photographs, 1960-1974 (Boxes 8-9)
  9. Series 9: Oversize Photographs, 1961-1974 (Box 10)
Physical location:
R2, C8, S4 OS R7, C2, S2
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard