Richard Critchfield Photograph Collection

Collection

Identifier: Photo 2055

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The photographic prints detail Richard Critchfield’s career as journalist and author. The prints mainly cover Critchfield’s coverage and study of village life in the Third World. The other prints are portraits of Richard Critchfield and his brother William (Bill). The two photo albums are of the Critchfield, Williams, and Collins families. The albums also contain newspaper clippings of Richard Critchfield and letters written to him by various journals. Also included is an eleven-page commentary on the photographs in the two albums written by Peggy Moffett. The collection also contained a series of negatives that were used in Those Days: A Family Album. The collection is organized into five series: Richard and William Critchfield, Villages, Publications, Family Albums and Negatives. The Richard and William Critchfield Series contains portraits of both Richard and Bill as well as views of the towns of Hunter and Fessenden, N.D. The pictures of Richard are head and shoulder portraits along with pictures of him with people he met as a journalist and author. The pictures of Bill cover his years as a navy Seabee. The pictures of Hunter and Fessenden are included because they document Richard’s tracing of his family history. The Villages Series contains photographs of the villages Richard Critchfield visited during his years as a journalist and author. The photographs are working scenes and portraits of many of the villagers he lived with and studied. The photographs cover Africa, China, the Middle East, India, Indonesia, Poland, and Mexico. The Publications Series contains pictures Critchfield used in his books. The photographs in this series are from The Golden Bowl Be Broken; Shahhat, An Egyptian; The Villagers; Villages, and Those Days. The Family Albums Series consists of two photograph albums that contain pictures of the Critchfield, Williams, and Collins families, but primarily document the life and career of Richard Critchfield. They are quite a complete documentation of snapshots and formal photographs of the Critchfield family. Clippings of Critchfield’s articles and a copy of the letter from the MacArthur Foundation notifying him that he was a recipient of a grant are also included in the albums. The pages are numbered and the pasted-in captions were written either by Richard or his sister, Peggy Moffett. The accompanying commentary written by Peggy Moffett provides valuable details regarding the photographs on a page by page basis. She explains who is in the photograph as well as where and when it was taken. The Negative Series consists of negatives for most if not all of the images used in Those Days. They are mainly of immediate family members as well as grandparents and cousins. There are also a small number of original negatives not found in Those Days that appear to be Critchfield family members. The 35mm subseries includes original images of Anne Critchfield and Peggy Moffett and others taken in 1982. The remainder of the 35mm negatives are copies of photographs, likely from the Wells County Historical Society in Fessenden, N.D.

Dates

1910s-1994

Creator

Critchfield, Richard. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Institute.

Copyrights

Copyrights to this collection remain with creator.

Biography

Richard Patrick Critchfield was born March 23, 1931 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Ralph James and Anne Louise (Williams) Critchfield. The family lived at Fessenden, North Dakota at the time and until 1932 when they moved to Fargo, North Dakota. Richard Critchfield received his B.A. from the University of Washington, Seattle. In 1957 he received his M.S. in journalism from Columbia University and did additional graduate work at the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck as well as Northwestern University. In his career as a journalist and author, Richard Critchfield reported from all over the world, concentrating mainly on the Third World. He wrote for the Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, The Wall Street Journal, American University Fieldstaff Report and the Washington Post. In 1965 he won the Overseas Press Award for his reporting in Vietnam. His books include Lore and Legend of Nepal (1971); The Long Charade: Political Subversion in the Vietnam War (1968); The Golden Bowl Be Broken: Peasant Life in Four Cultures (1973 and 1988); Shahhat: An Egyptian (1978); Villages (1981); Those Days: An American Album (1986); An American Looks at Britain (1990); Tress, Why Do You Wait? (1991); and Villagers (1994). In 1981 Mr. Critchfield received the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. He continued to work as a journalist and author up to his death on December 10, 1994.

Extent

224 Photographic Prints (224 photographic prints)

2 Photograph Albums (2 photograph albums (504 photographic prints))

123 Photographic Negatives (123 negatives)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The photographic prints detail Richard Critchfield’s career as journalist and author. The prints mainly cover Critchfield’s coverage and study of village life in the Third World.