World War I U.S. Army Training at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas Photo Album, ca. 1918

U S. Army Fort Bliss

Photograph

[World War I] Fort Bliss soldier training and camp life photo album from El Paso, ca. 1918, recording the rapid wartime expansion of a border post into a large World War I training environment through tent rows, drill formations, truck convoys, gas-mask instruction, and group portraits of enlisted men in uniform. The album grounds that setting in specific internal evidence, including the handwritten caption “Thanksgiving Ft. Bliss Texas 1918” beneath a group portrait, the tent sign “Ambulance Company No. 10 / Men Wanted,” and a large camp scene captioned “Ready for Business / W.H. Horse Co / El Paso, Tex.” Additional photographs follow soldiers through inspection lines, recreational and theatrical moments, camp interiors and exteriors, and transport scenes, giving the album a broad documentary range centered on military routine rather than formal ceremony alone.
World War I era training album at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas. Circa 1917-1918. Photograph album containing 49 original black-and-white photographs mounted on black cardstock, photographs ranging approximately from 2 x 3 inches to 3.5 x 5 inches. Images include extensive camp views, including long rows of tents, men standing in formation, a soldier posed before camp quarters, and a large gathering identified in manuscript as “Ready for Business.” One image shows a woman in military-style uniform saluting the camera, possibly a YWCA servicewoman. A substantial section documents motor transport and field organization through ambulance and truck lines, crowded vehicle scenes, and the recruiting sign for Ambulance Company No. 10, but these sit within a wider record of ordinary post life that includes mess and tent arrangements, wooded camp settings, dogs and mascots, informal portraits, a gas-mask training portrait, stage performance views beneath an American flag, rail lines and trestles, mountain roads, canyon routes, and several personal portraits, among them a woman in military dress and another street portrait with a uniformed soldier. The sequence suggests a soldier-assembled working album built from service experience at Fort Bliss and nearby western travel rather than a commercially produced souvenir.
The album places Fort Bliss within the wartime transformation of the U.S. Army on the Mexican border and in the Southwest, when posts such as El Paso functioned as training, transport, and staging environments for newly mobilized troops. Its strongest documentary value lies in the accumulation of ordinary but specific military details: tent architecture, vehicle organization, gas defense drill, troop formations, mess arrangements, rail infrastructure, and the handwritten Thanksgiving 1918 notation that fixes part of the sequence to the closing months of the war. Black paper album with spiral binding; photographs corner-mounted throughout; several prints with creases, abrasions, or edge losses but images in overall very good condition; album itself sound and complete. Overall very good condition. A photographic record of Fort Bliss that preserves how soldiers organized camp life, training, movement, and leisure in El Paso during the World War I years.

Item #23250

Price: $1,250.00