Glimpses of Texas in 1917

For our first photography blog in 2017, we look back 100 years through images in our General Photograph Collection. The photos give us an idea of how Texans lived in 1917. With horses and buggies visible on the streets and farms, it shows that the modern era had not completely arrived. Yet significant changes in the lives of many Texans would come that year with the United States entry into World War I on April 6th. Young men who had never ventured out from Texas would go far away to the battlefields in France.

McCulloch County draftees shortly before departing for military service, Brady. (Detail of 078-0438. Courtesy of Wayne Spiller)

 

Picnic overlooking the Somerset Western No. 1 oil derrick near Lytle. (093-0029. Courtesy of Margaret Trouart)

Washing buggies in the San Antonio River near the Navarro Street Bridge in downtown San Antonio. Photograph by Ellen Schulz Quillin. (074-0142. Courtesy of Roy W. Quillin)

Peet and Mary Persyn with vegetables from their farm southwest of San Antonio. (074-1083. Courtesy of Mrs. Cyril Persyn)

B. Johnson stands beside his invention, a mechanical cotton picker, Wharton County. (081-0072. Courtesy of Eve Bartlett and Wharton County Historical Museum)

Wagons loaded with cotton bales line up at El Campo’s Southern Pacific Railroad Station. (077-0200. Courtesy of Rose Shult)

Outdoor laundry, San Antonio. (083-0055. Courtesy Madelyn L. Carmelich)

San Antonio’s annual Battle of Flowers Parade on April 20th, with car occupied by (left to right, behind driver) Atlee B. Ayres, president of the Fiesta Association; Texas Governor James E. Ferguson; Adjutant General Henry Hutchins; and Major General John J. Pershing, commander of Fort Sam Houston. (083-0606. Courtesy of Ann Russell)

Hondo residents pose in front of patriotic bunting before leaving for service in the United States Navy. (096-0481. Courtesy of Frances Miller)

Parade organized to encourage donations and recruit volunteers for the Red Cross war-time services, Paint Rock. (097-0098. Courtesy of Concho County Courthouse)