The Amsterdam Crates

Few images of the Spanish Civil War are as powerful as those captured by two young female photographers: Margaret Michaelis (1902–1985) and Kati Horna (1912–2000). Much of their work was considered lost until historian Almudena Rubio identified hundreds of their photographs in the archives of the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam. Unsure of the war’s outcome, anarchists aligned with the CNT-FAI (National Confederation of Labour) had taken steps to preserve records of their struggle, sealing thousands of photographs, negatives, and almost 300 photographic plates in 48 wooden crates, which they smuggled out of Barcelona in January 1939.