This album dates from 1889-1890 and is a collection of photographs of soldiers with the 23rd Separate Company, recruited for the Spanish-American War and serving at Camp Wetherill near Greenville, South Carolina. There are 208 photographs, mostly small, and of varying quality. They show camp scenes, soldiers during training, being inspected by officers, posing with each other and with civilians, including African-Americans. Other photographs display the Kansas City ship moored at dock and cruising; animals; street scenes in Charlottesville, Virginia; landmarks in different locations: the Gothic Revival Style Green-Meldrim Sherman’s mansion in Savannah, Georgia; the U.S Capitol, the Washington Monument (Obelisk), the Thomas Jefferson Building (named today, the Library of Congress) with its Court of Neptune sculptures, the Old Executive Building (named today, Dwight D. Eisenhower Building) in Washington D.C, and the Armory in the City of Hudson, New York.
Among the men posing in the album is Byron Parker, Jr. from Hudson, New York. Byron Jr. was born in 1874 in Hudson, New York and lived at 436 Warren Street. On July 11th 1898, the 23-year-old young man was enlisted in Syracuse, New York, and then joined the 23rd Separate Company based in Camp Wetherill as a corporal. Back in Hudson, he worked as a plumber and married Mabel Hudson in June, 1906. Byron Jr. died on October 18th, 1952 in his hometown.
This album was mounted by Nora Parker Hills, sister of Byron Parker Jr.