Visual Materials

Photograph album of United States naval activities in Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, and United States

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Description: This photo album was compiled by a member of the United States Navy who was aboard the USS Wisconsin between 1902 and 1904. The 48 black-and-white photographs are accompanied by extensive handwritten descriptions. The photos depict American, British, and Japanese military ships. The U.S. Naval ships include the USS Adams, the USS Kentucky, the USS Oregon, and the USS Wisconsin. The locations represented in the photographs include San Diego, California; Yokosuka, Japan; Yokohama, Japan; Hong Kong; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Manila, Philippines. The photographs depict views of military boats and crew, shipping docks, a few views of churches and street scenes, and the Queen's Palace in Honolulu.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1902-1904.
Call number: photCL 755
Provenance: Purchased from Michael Maslan Vintage Posters, Photographs, Postcards & Ephemera, March 2026.

Subseries F. Japan, China, and Philippines; World War I Naval Service; Baja, Mexico; and Channel Islands

Visual Materials

Photographs chiefly depict Japan, China, and the Philippines and Howard W. Wright's military service during World War I; images also depict various islands off of Baja, California, and the Channel Islands of Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara. Photographs show the ship Tenyo Maru leaving San Francisco and scenes from on board, including a gymastics competition; views of Honolulu, Yokohama, Kobe, Kyoto, Shanghai, Nara, and Nagasaki, including coal barges and coaling operations; houses and animals pulling wares in Manila; the bay and city of Hong Kong; river boats, street scenes, and a pagoda in Canton and a 1300-year-old pagoda on the Pearl River; boats and people in Macao; and carvings by Hidari Jinguro. Photographs depicting Howard W. Wright's Naval service include views of various ships, including a coaling ship in Acapulco and various images from on decks; Navy crews at work; portraits of Naval units; and the Miraflores lock at the Panama Canal. Views of Baja include cormorants on San Martin Island; Naval ships at sea; and boats and rocky shorelines at Todos Santos, with Punta Banda in the distance; and views of the Channel Islands include scenes of sailing at Santa Cruz Island and birds, wild boar, and images of boats at Santa Barbara Island.

photCL 222

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Photograph albums of a Japanese businessman's trip to the United States

Visual Materials

Two albums of photographs taken by a Japanese businessman of his trip to the United States in the early 1930s. The man appears to have been Yaroku Katayama, who was engaged in export trade in the 1930s and 1940s, and appears in a few photographs, including one aboard the passenger ship Taiyo Maru with Japanese parliamentarian Mitsuhashi Shiroji. The two small albums have many handwritten captions in Japanese, and a few in English. The date 1932 is written in two captions in both albums. The small black-and-white snapshots depict street scenes and scenery in Niagara Falls, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Chicago, and in Arizona, where he traveled by train on the Santa Fe Railway. One of the albums is primarily of scenes in Hawaii, especially Honolulu, where he stopped en route to his return to Japan.

photCL 681

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Photograph album of the Philippines during the Spanish American War

Visual Materials

An album with 114 professional photographs, with handwritten captions, taken during the Spanish American War, mostly in the Philippines, including graphic scenes of trench warfare, battlefield dead and wounded, prisoners, and the burning of towns and dwellings. Among the locations in the Philippines shown are Manila, Caloocan, Pasig River, and the Pasay road. Photographs taken outside of the Philippines show Japan; Honolulu, Hawaii; and the Golden Gate, California. Other photographs show troop encampments, scenes of village or town life, and war ruins. There are views of officers' and enlisted men's quarters, and facilities for support staff such as cooks, the Signal Corps, and the Red Cross. There are a few street scenes with Filipino men in Western clothing, women, and children. Photographs of people include Admiral George Dewey, captioned "Admiral Dewey's last day in Manila, paying the coachman"; General Frederick Funston; and Brigadier General Harrison Gray Otis. Many of the photographs have the imprint of Perley Fremont Rockett, the official photographer of the 20th Kansas Regiment. There are also 11 (5 x 9 cm) photographs of American and Spanish ships, which seem to have been cut out from an unknown source.

photCL 122

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Photographic portrait album of United States Naval Academy personnel and USS Constitution crew

Visual Materials

An album with 15 carte-de-visite studio portraits of officers and midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy and USS Constitution. Among the officers and crew included are Naval Academy Superintendent George Smith Blake, Edward P. Lull, Charles L. Huntington, and USS Constitution boatswain's mate Thomas ("Old Tom") Hunter, midshipmen Bowman H. McCalla (entered the Academy in 1861, graduated November 1864), Charles H. Stockton (entered 1861, graduated October 1865), C.P. Griswold, and L.M. Albright. The album includes handwritten labels loosely inserted into some of the frames, often with the names and hometowns of other midshipmen. The frame on page 2 is empty and contains an inserted paper strip labeled "Henry Ward Beecher, Brooklyn, New York." The album is inscribed on the title page in the same hand as the paper labels "From George to Mary".

photCL 46

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Photograph album of China, Korea, and Japan

Visual Materials

A photograph album containing 263 photographs of China, Korea, and Japan, dating from the time of the Boxer Uprising in China to the Russo-Japanese War, 1901 to 1905. The photographs are primarily unique images, along with some commercial photographs and foldout panoramas, and many have handwritten captions. The album's inside cover is inscribed: "John Rory Macey / H.M.S. Blenheim / China Station / Vol. II / Jan 1st 1901 - July 18th, 1905"; Macey was a naval engineer in the British Admiralty and most likely took some of the photographs, particularly naval-related scenes, and images of British servicemen. Photographic subjects in China include navy ships in the port of Weihaiwei, street scenes in Peking (Beijing) and other cities, Chinese residents, monuments (including the Forbidden Palace under foreign occupation), palaces, gardens, and temples. A number of photographs focus on the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising, including ruined buildings. The second portion of the album depicts scenes in Korea during the Russo-Japanese War; these include Korean people in daily activities, street scenes, commercial images of Chemulpo, and the palace grounds in Seoul. The third portion of the album contains amateur and commercial photographs of Japan, including the port cities of Maizuru and Yokohama, Japanese residents, tea ceremonies, the hot spring resort of Tonosawa, and panoramic images of the Osaka Exhibition of 1903. At the back of the album are 17 large, hand-colored photographs of Japan, including images of landscapes, street vendors, and Japanese women in genre scenes.

photCL 632

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Photograph album of U.S. Asiatic Fleet serviceman stationed in the Philippines

Visual Materials

A photograph album chronicling the travels of an unidentified U.S. Navy Reserve officer while serving with the Asiatic Fleet and the Pacific Reserve Fleet, from 1912 to 1920, while stationed in the Philippines. The photographs also incude Shanghai, China and San Diego, San Pedro, and San Francisco, California, with a visit to the Panama Pacific International Exposition. There are also images of the USS Maumee launching in California, the USS South Dakota, and several other Navy vessels and facilities in and around Manila, Subic Bay, and the naval base at Olangapo, Philippines. The mostly snapshot images also depict Philippine residents in everyday activities, a 1920 Fourth of July parade, indigenous Philippine inhabitants in an archery contest, street scenes, and a funeral. Handwritten captions appear throughout the album, and some images have captions in the negative.

photCL 656

Photograph album of United States naval activities in Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, and United States

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Subseries F. Japan, China, and Philippines; World War I Naval Service; Baja, Mexico; and Channel Islands

Photograph albums of a Japanese businessman's trip to the United States

Photograph album of the Philippines during the Spanish American War

Photographic portrait album of United States Naval Academy personnel and USS Constitution crew

Photograph album of China, Korea, and Japan

Photograph album of U.S. Asiatic Fleet serviceman stationed in the Philippines