Post-War Cuba Photo Archive, 1920s Cuba, Caribbean Latino, Chicano, Mexico,Photography,Travel and Maps

[Cuba] [Travel] Havana, Cuba ca. 1920s. Approximately 25 sepia-toned silver gelatin photographs, each measuring about 3 x 5 inches, mounted to black album leaves with detailed handwritten captions in white pencil. An evocative early-20th-century photographic record of Havana, Cuba, captured by an American traveler during the interwar years. The captions, written in English in the first person, reflect the perspective of a U.S. visitor engaging with Havana s colonial and postcolonial identity, its layered architecture, and its historical monuments connected to the Spanish-American War. Among the earliest images are views from the deck of the S.S. Kroonland, noting "My first view of Havana from the deck. three miles out at sea in a dark storm," followed by the landing "where we landed in Havana, Cuba." The photographs trace the city s maritime and civic topography, including the harbor and Morro Castle captioned "Famous during the Spanish-American War", the Court House, the President s Palace, the "600-year-old church," and the waterfront in front of Morro Castle. Others feature the Henry Clay Cigar Store, the Havana factory district, and the public boulevards "where all streets have parks in the center," capturing the modernizing capital during the height of U.S. economic and cultural influence on the island. Several photographs directly commemorate the legacies of the Spanish-American War and Cuban nationalism, including one monument captioned, "This was given by the Cuban people to the American soldiers that fell in the Spanish-American War," and another marking "the spot where the Maine sank at the entrance of the harbor." These images document how American travelers visually consumed Cuba through the lens of imperial memory and the romanticized aftermath of U.S. intervention. Additional scenes include a cemetery tour "All people in Cuba are laid to rest above the ground" and a surreptitious photograph of a carriage with the caption, "Officer would not let me take picture but when he turned I took it anyway." Collectively, the album reveals an early-twentieth-century tourist s negotiation of curiosity, privilege, and the spectacle of a postcolonial Caribbean metropolis. Album leaves chipped at edges, several with corner losses not affecting images; prints generally sharp with strong contrast and clear annotations. Overall very good condition. A rare and socially revealing visual document of Havana in the American imagination between the U.S. occupation and the rise of mid-century Cuban nationalism.