Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Album of Photographic Postcards of Mexican border wars
Image not available
- Description
- An album of photographic postcards pertaining to battles along the U.S.-Mexico border during the Mexican Revolution, approximately 1913-1916. Images include soldiers and officers, military camp life, views of artillery and trenches, Yaqui Indian soldiers, U.S. Army cavalry and refugee camps. Notable among the photographs are many views of dead soldiers and executions by hanging or firing squad. The compiler of this disbound album is unknown; photographs are mounted on paper album pages, and there are many handwritten captions on the pages. Dates written in captions range between 1913 and 1916, and several make reference to battles at Naco and Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico in 1913. Other locations represented include military encampments at Nogales, Arizona and Agua Prieta; a refugee camp at Douglas, Arizona; and a bird's-eye-view of the town of Columbus, New Mexico. Some photographs show child soldiers brandishing guns, civilian spectators viewing bodies, and one view of a U.S. airplane squadron. There are three photographs of Pancho Villa, including a group portrait with Gen. Rodolfo Fierro and Gen. Hugh Lenox Scott. Other portraits include Álvaro Obregón and officers; Yaqui leader Luis Bule; Francisco I. Madero; Pascual Orozco and General P.E. Calles. There is one view of the dead body of Enrique Portillo; other photographs of executed men are identified by nicknames or surnames only. Most of the photographic postcards are by Walter H. Horne (credit "W.H. Horne Co.") of El Paso, Texas, with several also by photographer Calvin ("Cal") Osbon of Douglas, Arizona. Osbon's photographs are notable for lengthy, descriptive captions imprinted in the images. The formats are almost all photographic postcards, except for a few smaller photographs and one larger group portrait labelled "Carranza Cabinet" showing Venustiano Carranza and others at Agua Prieta, May, 1914.
