The Isle of Pines. [Promotional Photo Album]

Brooklyn, New York: The Albertype Co, 1913. Photo album of twenty-five 12 ½ x 10 inch pages containing fifty 8 x 6 inch photographs, with cardstock cover. Cover and pages worn with marginal damage; pages mostly detached from string binding; photos with captions on negative; Near Fine with Fine contrast. Overall excellent to Near Fine.. After the Spanish American War, the Isle of Pines (now Isla de Juventud in Cuba) was contested territory, because the 1901 Platt Amendment had specifically left ownership of the island up to a future treaty; the 1904 Hay-Quesada Treaty recognizing Cuban sovereignty over the island failed to be ratified by the US until 1925. American citizens controlled ninety-five per cent or more of the island’s land and were strongly in favor of American annexation.

Offered here is a 1913 photo album exhibiting the island’s lush scenery, productive farmland, and luxurious American residences and resorts. The American property owners are identified by name, and include American Residents and Property Owners’ Association President T.J. Keenan, who in 1902 described the island under default administration by the Cuban government as “on the verge of anarchy [...] American interests are absolutely unprotected”[1]; H.A. Christy, Vice President of the Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie Railroad; coal and coke businessman John F. Atcheson, and other elites. There are also shots of a number of hotels; grapefruit, banana, and pineapple farms belonging to the settlers; and recreation by both automobile and boat.

Two photographs are not of American ventures: one of the home of José Sarda, which housed José Martí before his exile to Spain (labeled merely “Nueva Gerona Sarda Homstead”); and one of a house labeled “San Juan Native Homestead”, showing a family standing on the porch of their thatched-roof home with an oxcart before them.

We find four copies of this photo book on OCLC. Of interest to historians of US imperialism in Cuba following the military withdrawal.

[1] “The Isle of Pines, President Orders Investigation of Affairs There”, The Press-Herald, November 15, 1902, 2.