Spanish-American War Identified U.S. Soldier Assembled Album Documenting the Capitulation of Manila, Philippines, 1898

Identified U. S. Soldier in Philippines

Photograph

[Spanish American War] [Philippine American War] Photo album compiled by Lewis M. Hesseldahl of Company C, 1st Colorado U.S. Volunteers, a soldier assembled visual and documentary record of the Manila campaign and early American occupation that materially documents the transition from the Spanish American War to the Philippine American War in 1898 and 1899. Created in the immediate aftermath of the August 13, 1898 Capitulation of Manila, the album preserves a ground level perspective of American volunteer forces during the United States’ first sustained overseas imperial conflict. Through numbered field photographs of trenches, armed detachments, encampments, transport infrastructure, civic architecture, and Filipino civilian life, the album provides primary visual evidence of occupation, military organization, racialized encounter, and urban transformation in Manila at the moment the United States supplanted Spain as colonial power. As a regimental artifact centered on Company C of the 1st Colorado U.S.V., it also supports research into volunteer mobilization from the American West, martial masculinity, and the social composition of state based volunteer units during the war of 1898.

Original bound photograph album containing 98 mounted silver gelatin prints and 54 identified regimental calling cards associated with members of the 1st Colorado U.S. Volunteers. Photos mostly measure 4" x 6". Bound in beige cloth boards with a print of the "U.S. Battleship Texas" pasted to front cover. Images are sequentially numbered and include field fortifications with riflemen positioned in trenches, camp scenes with tent encampments, formal and informal portraits of enlisted men and officers, transportation scenes including rail and river craft, Manila street views with horse drawn conveyances and commercial signage, architectural studies of colonial gateways including Puerta de Isabel II dated 1863, riverine landscapes, Filipino domestic and rural scenes, and industrial interiors with stacked rifles and military materiel. The 54 calling cards identify individual soldiers by name, rank, company, and home city, many bearing printed emblems referencing the August 13, 1898 Capitulation of Manila and the 1st Colorado Regiment. Together these cards create a documented social network of the regiment and materially anchor the photographic record to identifiable participants in the campaign.

The 1st Colorado U.S. Volunteers were mobilized in 1898 and deployed to the Philippines following Commodore Dewey’s victory in Manila Bay, participating in the capture of Manila and subsequent occupation duties as tensions escalated into armed conflict with Filipino nationalist forces in 1899. Albums assembled by enlisted men are comparatively uncommon survivals and offer interpretive depth distinct from official military photography, particularly in their juxtaposition of battlefield preparation, quotidian camp routine, colonial urban life, and Filipino civilian subjects. The inclusion of the Capitulation of Manila insignia situates the album at the precise symbolic hinge between Spanish sovereignty and American imperial governance. Bound in original boards with decorative cover featuring U.S. Battleship Texas; photographs mounted on heavy paper leaves. Edge wear, page toning, chipping to leaves, and scattered creasing consistent with field assembly and age; photographs generally clear but some exhibit water rippling. Overall good condition for a collection from over 100 years ago. A cohesive, soldier identified regimental archive documenting American expansion into the Pacific at the moment of empire.

Item #23030

Price: $4,550.00

Status: On Hold