Cross-Border Life at the Texas-Mexico Border Photo Album, 1910s–1920s

[Texas-Mexico Border] [Early Photography] This extensive early 20th-century family photo album captures patriotic pageantry, small-town Americana, and binational life along the Texas-Mexico border during a period of heightened nationalism, militarization, and cross-cultural exchange. Compiled by an unidentified family residing in or near Del Rio, Texas—a key border town opposite Villa Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico—the album spans approximately the 1910s–1920s and features over 250 mounted silver gelatin photos and real photo post cards that document parades, landscapes, commercial life, and regional architecture on both sides of the border. Craft paper wrappers (truncated) bound by black string, photos are pasted down to black album leaves. Album measures 7" x 11" and photos range with most being 3" x 4". Many photographs are inscribed in white ink with location names such as “Del Rio,” “Villa Acuña,” “Marfa,” and “New Orleans,” suggesting the compiler traveled or maintained strong ties across the South and Southwest. The album hosts images of local street scenes, including a labeled photo of "Villa Acuña Main St, Coah., Mexico," showcasing modest commercial buildings with signage in Spanish, mule-drawn carts, and American-made cars, reflecting the area's binational trade and travel. A remarkable photo shows an interior saloon or billiard hall labeled “Club Café, Villa Acuña,” filled with Mexican men and American tourists. Other images show a bar labeled “Cerveza Sabinas” and a seated group of Anglo tourists enjoying drinks in Coahuila’s cantinas—indicative of cross-border leisure during the era of Prohibition in the United States (1920–1933), when many Americans flocked to Mexican towns for alcohol. Several photographs document the surrounding geography and built environment. Images labeled “Marfa,” “Langtry,” and “Monterey, Mexico” include scenes of creeks, desert hills, bridges, and trains. Of particular interest is a photograph taken in front of the saloon and courthouse of Judge Roy Bean, the self-proclaimed “Law West of the Pecos,” whose frontier courtroom in Langtry, Texas, became a legendary symbol of extrajudicial authority in the borderlands. Other scenes include the Southern Pacific Railway and shots of canyon rock formations on the “Mexican Border Highway.” The latter photos in the sequence depict elaborate patriotic parades staged in open fields, likely in Del Rio or a nearby town. Floats bearing children and adult participants are extravagantly decorated with American flags, Red Cross emblems, military motifs, and hand-painted slogans such as “Save Our Schools” and “All Honor to Our Boys Who Fought to Make the World Safe for Democracy”—a direct quote from Woodrow Wilson’s 1917 justification for U.S. entry into World War I. One float bears large wheels wrapped in concentric flag designs, while another features a group of nurses in uniform beside a Red Cross-branded ambulance. Children in sailor hats and period dress are prominently featured in multiple floats. These images offer rare visual documentation of local community responses to the First World War and postwar civic engagement in the American Southwest. The album also features vernacular portraits of the family and their friends, both posed and candid, including several women in long dresses, men in cowboy hats, and children playing outdoors. Their dress and hairstyles help situate the album within the 1910s–1920s timeframe. A few photos, captioned “New Orleans,” hint at wider regional travel. Historically, this album provides valuable insight into the cultural hybridity of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands during the early 20th century. It documents the intersection of Mexican and Anglo-American life, the impact of WWI on local communities, and the evolving landscape of border towns like Del Rio and Villa Acuña during an era shaped by immigration, prohibition, and postwar nationalism. Albums of this depth, specificity, and visual clarity from this era—especially those highlighting cross-border civilian life—are exceedingly scarce. Cover edges held together with tape, some family photos are clipped and pasted down, some minor staining to a few photos. Overall very good condition. (Inventory #: 21948)