335

Photo album from a New York National Guard unit activated for service on the Mexican border in 1916.

Various places, 1915-1917 and 1925
Approximately 240 photographs, most postcard size or smaller, laid down mostly without captions on 20 album leaves. Oblong 4to, 11 x 14 inches, original cloth post binder, minimal wear, with typed label on front board, "First New York Cavalry, Mexican Boarder Service 1916-1917" [sic]; a few photos apparently removed, otherwise minimal wear to contents; signed by compiler on front pastedown with related clipping taped below. 

This album was kept by Walter Bradnee Kirby (1885-1975) of Brooklyn during the Mexican Border War. He was serving in the 1st New York Cavalry when they were called up in reaction to troubles on the Mexican border--the first time the National Guard was called up and federalized as part of the United States Army.


The first 26 photos in the album shows the militia unit on training trips to Pine Plains and Van Cortland Park, NY in 1915 and 1916. Later in 1916, they arrive by train in McAllen near the southern tip of Texas. The photographs show Spanish shop signs, Mexican-American families in rough thatch-roof houses, soldiers bathing in what we assume is the Rio Grande, and numerous other camp scenes. Befitting a cavalry regiment, many fine horses are seen, including an equestrian contest. 

A few of the images are Real Photo postcards which are captioned in the negative. One sequence shows the final cavalry review staged for Generals John J. Pershing and Frederick Funston, who may be in the center of one crowd shot.

Kirby was on active duty from June 1916 to March 1917. He was an architect during peacetime who spent most of his career in Connecticut. One final image shows Kirby in civilian clothes at the Fairfield County Hunt Club in 1925, mounted on a trusty steed.

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