Photo Album Documenting Activities of the Texas National Guard Along the Mexican Border, 1916
Disbound photograph album consisting of 48 loose 7" x 10" leaves with a total of 227 photographs mounted to both sides. The images are a combination of real photo postcards (most by professional photographers) and original snapshot photographs. Image size ranges from about 2" x 3" to 4.5' x 6". Some of the real photo postcards have been trimmed, but otherwise the condition of the photos is very good. The images are not captioned (beyond captions printed on some of the rppcs), and the album's compiler is not identified. However, based on a few handwritten notations and other internal clues, we suspect it was assembled by William James Burch (1894-1979), who was born in Louisiana, lived in Jefferson County, Texas by 1917, and appears in the 1920 census as a resident of Port Arthur, employed as an oil inspector.
In 1916, the Texas National Guard was mobilized to protect the U.S.-Mexico border after Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico. This album shows activities of the 2nd and 3rd Texas Infantry (part of the famed Texas Brigade), who were first stationed in the Brownsville area and then moved to Corpus Christi after a hurricane caused significant flooding and damage in August of that year. There are images of training in and around Fort Brown (also including cavalry and artillery units and the motorcycle corps), troops marching through Brownsville, a meeting between Colonel A. P. Blocksom and Mexican President Venustiano Carranza on the Brownsville-Matamoros International Bridge, and what appear to be some brief forays across the border. Following this are images from the period when the troops were being moved to Camp Scurry, which was hastily constructed outside Corpus Christi in September 1916. There are images of various small towns in the region, including Harlingen, San Benito, and Point Isabel. A group of 12 uncommon real photo postcards by photographer Karl Swafford capture life at Camp Scurry, including military vehicles, tents, drills, training, and inspections. Others show soldiers at leisure, including a rare image of a football game. Other Swafford photos show streets and buildings in Corpus Christi. Also included in the album are several images of General Frederick Funston and other American military leaders; one photo of Pancho Villa and his wife; one of Carranza's soldiers; one of a hanged "bandit"; and three of the Guttey Gas Gusher at Whitepoint, Texas. The album concludes with a section of ca. 45 photos of the compiler and his friends and family that appear to have been taken in the Harlingen area. In all, a varied and interesting collection of images with excellent documentation of military life during this transitional period along the border.
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