Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 307

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.) Album of an Iowa regiment's service in the Philippines. 250 photographs, most about 2 x 3 inches and some a bit larger, laid down on 22 scrapbook leaves with short inked captions and faint pencil numbers below each. Oblong 4to, later buckram binder; minor wear to contents. Vp, [June 1898 to November 1899]
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Additional Details

This unsigned but compelling album was apparently compiled by a member of the 51st Iowa Infantry; its officers Major J.T. Hume and Captain J.T. Davidson are named. The regiment's service matches the locations shown here: they arrived in California on 10 June 1898, and on 2 November 1898 boarded the transport ship Pennsylvania for the Philippines. They saw combat from February through August 1899 at San Roque, Pulilan, Calumpit, Santo Tomas, San Fernando, and Calulut. On 22 September, they sailed from Manila for San Francisco, where they were mustered out on 2 November.

Highlights include a shot of the 51st Iowa camp in California (22), Chinese street vendors in San Francisco (56), shots of the Pennsylvania transport ship (54, 55), 5 scenes in Hawaii (43-51), arrival at Cavite in the Philippines (44, 45, 47), Manila scenes (58, 59, 68, 70, 107), Admiral Dewey (91), insurgent prisoners (101), the grave of John Turner of the 51st Iowa (104), gruesome post-battle scenes of insurgent corpses (115, 120, 138, 153, 166), American soldiers in trenches at Culiculi (133), General Arthur MacArthur and staff (198), scenes of Japan (218-228), and the return to California. Photograph 128 purports to show top insurgent general Gregorio del Pilar, although Pilar was never captured and died in combat.