On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
cope
Disclaimer: I did not take these pictures. They record travels both spatial and temporal from before my time.
A couple of years ago I found a box of negatives belonging to my maternal grandfather. Most are on acetate but some are glass plates. I have recently started scanning them.
These images are from his time as a member of the Mexican Expedition to chase down and capture Pancho Villa in 1916 and 1917.
I have many more negatives including from his time as part of the occupying forces in Germany after World War I. I might share some of those later in On The Road.
These soldiers are carrying a flag but I cannot make out any details.
This work crew includes my grandfather, second from left. I owe him my wonderful, thick head of hair as well as my splay-toed stance and gait.
They lived in tents erected on wooden platforms. It looks to me like they are unpacking the tent they will erect on the platform behind them.
This is the result of their efforts. I tried this sepia tone in my scanning software but prefer the straight black and white.
This adobe fort (?) was incorporated into their camp.
I assume this was the quartermaster’s tent.
This appears to be along the perimeter of the camp. I think this is my grandfather.
This is my grandfather. That .45 on his hip was supposed to go to me on his death but unscrupulous relatives scooped up all the military memorabilia from his estate while I was a continent away.
eclare
What interesting photos! I love looking at old black and white photos of my relatives.
Low Key Swagger
My mother is a Losoya. She came here as an infant, after Pancho Villa took her family’s estate and wealth. Her uncles stayed behind, and two of them were on that crew that eventually did kill him.
raven
The more things change!!!
Our tents were bigger and, after about 4 months, we got power so we had a couple of big fans. Sucks about the 45.
raven
And we had bunkers and wire!!!
JPL
Wonderful pictures.
@Low Key Swagger: Thank you for sharing your family history with us. Fascinating.
eclare
@raven: Hahaha…great photo!
oldster
Cool pics.
That was when a 1911 was hardly out of grade school!
I note that most of the tents have a square base, but in the last pic your grandfather is standing in front of two tents whose bases are closer to circular: they have a polygonal base where N= about 18-20 or so. Dunno what that means — bigger tents? Mess tents? Officers’ tents?
I also note that only in the last pic is he wearing spiral-wrapped puttees. In the earlier pics, guys are wearing gaiters that are one-piece and close in the front. Could be leather, or very heavy duck.
Putting these two points together, I wonder whether the last pic comes from a different deployment altogether? Maybe stateside, before the trip down south?
raven
Interesting information on the “Punitive Expedition, U.S. Army”
Ten Bears
Thank you Raven, you beat me to the button.
As with everything we’ve ever done, there are questions …
HeartlandLiberal
I hope you will keep the Smithsonian Museum in mind as a possible future repository for those plates and negatives. They are a priceless historical record.
P.S. Are you as handsome as your young grandfather? Come on, you can tell us.
Richard
My mother’s father, my grand dad was there. This was before Arizona became a state.
He didn’t talk about it much. I don’t think it was a happy time.
He was just a dumb kid. So instead of going over to die in a trench in Belgium, he stayed at home at home and fought Pancho Villa.
It is not for me to judge.
Betty
Your grandfather looks so very young. Your relatives should be ashamed of themselves, a story too often told.
raven
@Betty: what bullshit
JanieM
@raven: What are you saying is bullshit?
I thought she meant the relatives who took the stuff that was supposed to come to cope.
Redshift
Wow. My wife’s grandfather was also on that force. Later he was stationed in Washington during WWI, where he wrote a letter begging to be sent to Europe; we still have the reply telling him the work he was doing here was also vital to the way effort.
Also, he was the tallest man in the Army at the time. His photo was on a postcard of the tallest and shortest men in the Army, but sadly we do not have a copy of it.
cope
@oldster: Good catch, I just don’t know. The negatives had no notes or descriptions except for a post card sent to him in Germany after the war. It was fairly easy to separate his US shots from his Germany ones but beyond that, I was flying blind.
When the federal government finally opens back up completely, I can get a copy of his service records and maybe fill in some gaps.
mvr
This is cool to see. And it must be cooler when it is your own grandfather!
WaterGirl
I realized yesterday afternoon that I hadn’t posted the schedule for OTR this week.
Mike in NC
They never did catch Pancho Villa.
Pete Mack
Wool pants in Mexico cannot possibly have been comfortable.
J R in WV
I’ve been scanning old family photos also, kind of hit an emotional snag and quit, have been very do-less lately, or do-minimum anyways. When I get some more digitized, I’ll send in some sets of old photos. Grandpa was in the Army for WWI, as a blacksmith, he shoed mules just before they boarded ships for Europe. Never crossed the Atlantic himself, but the photos are still cool. Wrecked trucks inna ditch, many guys getting them repaired and back on the road.
Also photos of him building a new coal tipple with steam derrick, etc, etc. Was reputedly the strongest guy in a mine crew of over 500 guys. Farm kid blacksmith. Smiths back then were strong, strong! Where we got all the mechanics and engineers.
JustRuss
Interesting bit of history. Thanks for sharing these.
TaMara (HFG)
@Low Key Swagger: That’s fascinating.
And thanks for the photos cope – love these old B&W pieces of history.
Beisbol Houligan
Great photos.
My mother was from Chihuahua, and all the family there takes great pride in having been Villistas. In fact, my great grandmother was one of the few women who were honored as Heroes of the Revolution.
way2blue
Wow cope. These photos are a wonderful glimpse into history. Your grandfather looks so young in the last photo!
JanieM
Great pictures, very evocative — and they give me confidence in that scanner, which you recommended at the end of last year when you mentioned your scanning project and I asked about it. (I bought it, and here it sits, because I haven’t prioritized the scanning.) I have a shot of my dad at 18, taken at a CCC camp in Idaho: dry, dusty landscape, camp buildings in the background, a similar feel to some of these. Treasures, these old pictures.
cope
@JanieM: It’s a bit of a slog getting the scanner up and running for sure. You have to downloaded the Epson software (easy) for basic functions and also download the Silverfast software (tricky as it is a commercial product that you should be able to activate using your Epson info). Silverfast is basically editing software you use before the actual scanning process.
Silverfast has greater capabilities than the native Epson software but it’s worth investing the time and energy into learning how to use it. Best of luck and it sounds like you will spend many an hour (as I have) learning and scanning great glimpses into your family’s past.
JanieM
@cope: — thanks for the note about Silverfast. I’ll get to it one of these days, and this will be helpful.
raven
@JanieM: mea culpa
Richard
@Beisbol Houligan:
Thank you. I sure hope these photos get saved. My grandfather was an orphan, i never heard how that came to be. So he joined this effort when he was a kid.
I don’t know much about those times.