People and Places: A Cordillera Legacy - Photographs from 1900 - 1925

The exhibit was held from May 23 - July 05, 2022
Saint Mary's School of Sagada, Inc.
Sagada, Mountain Province

This exhibition of reproduced vintage photographs, much of them never-before-seen, highlights the peoples of the Cordillera, their culture, and their past.

Selected from the collection of Jonathan Best, and the Ortigas Library Image Bank as well as private collectors,  “PEOPLE AND PLACES: A CORDILLERA LEGACY” threads visually through the remote Cordilleras at the beginning of the 20th century,   A generation later a different architecture, a different cultural norm, education and mode of dressing become enmeshed in lives and surroundings.  But not quite.  

The peoples of the Cordilleras have managed to retain much of their heritage despite external pressures. This exhibition of rare photographs, 100 plus years old, attest to the vestiges of the past yet constantly being renewed and preserved today by young and old alike in many of its communities.  For lowlanders like myself, we are inspired by their indomitable spirit.

We thank St. Mary’s School of Sagada for hosting the exhibition, Water Dragon, Inc., Mr. Tom Killip for his guidance, our Library staff including Betty Lalana as Photo Editor, Mar Alcantara as Assistant Curator, and Victoria Venzon as overall Designer.  

We dedicate this exhibition to the late historian William Henry Scott (1921 – 1993), the prolific writer of the history of the Cordillera peoples and Sagada residents.


John L. Silva
Executive Director, Curator & Catalog Editor
Ortigas Foundation Library