The Mexican Revolution Postcards Of El Paso's Walter Horne EL PALACIO MAGAZINE Vol. 115, Spring 2010

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Vi1la and 484 men on the vrllage of Columbus, New

Merico. on Varch a. lolo. left eighteen Amerrcans

dead. including ten soldrers ol the I 3'h Cavalry and nine towns-

people. The rarders engaged in generrL Joor ing of the town. and

burned the bank, hotel, and some other buildings during the

two-hour m€lee. Once deployed. the US Cavalrl- unit garrisoned

there pursued, kiiling with rifle and machine-gun fire an esti-

mated sixty-two raiders and wounding another twenty-five.

A stunned President Woodrow Wilson ordered an imme-

diate punitive expedition by the cavaJrl rnto Mexico. selectrng

Brigadier CenemlJohn J BlackJack Pershingto lead. Pershing

and hrs command of 20,000 soldiers crossed into Mexico six

der r e[ter rhe rrir] -pnplr^l ino ,lOO mileq end enr,,..........o .- -..gagrngrnanumber of actions with the Vrllistas and troops of Venustiano

Carranza, remaining south of the border for the next ten-and-

a-half months.

To orolecl the horder aeainst ftrrther incrrrsions Wilson

ordered the National Guard of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona

into federal service. Following the passage of rhe National

Defense Act of 1916, National Guard units from the other states

(except for Nevada, which had none) were called up for dut;-on

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Allimages fr6m postcards by W H. Horne Co. are courtesy of the

Palace o{ the 6dVBrnors Photo Archives (NIMH|\//DCA)

Backgtound lmage: "U.S. Troops al Deming, N.M.,l ca. 1916. Neg. No. 161182,-,

0pnlisite Top: "N.M.N.G. arrives at Columbus, N.l\i.," ci. 1916. Neg. No. 005793

Opposite Top Right: "smoking Ruins of Columbus, N.M., Raided by Pancho Villa,"

March 1916, Neg N0.005805.

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President Wilson's call to arms, 122 troop trains were headed

lo [i 'rrl mri,rr a-qe'nh]r jrrcts in the br'rder slale>. Bv the end o[

Ausust I I 1 000 officers and enlisted men were on the border.. '*5*"'

One of the first on the scene after the Columbus raid was

El Paso, Texas, "real photo postLard photographer

Walter H. Horne, who operated a business then

knon'n as the Mexican War Photo PosLcard Company.

Horne is credited with capu-rring the earliest rmages of

Colr-rmbus following the raid: ruins of burned build-

ino. .p113 cr ill smolderino lhe I S Ironr. .t at ioncd'*' b'

there; dead VillisLa rarders and their mass cremation;

and wor-rnded horses.

For the thousands of men from across America nou,..t .,- ,t.^ \ r ., ;..^n hnrder no.l,;rd. rvere Lhe

most convenient and memorable wa1'to communicale

with famrly and friends. Photo pictLrre postcarLls \ -ere

all the more pracLic:rl in that they married two graphic

modes, handlr,-riting and photography. They were the

emrrl nf rheir derr'_'_ _' -*/ '

60 tl Polacio

"Gen. Vi la & Mrs. Vllla,"January l, 1914.

Neg. No.117656.

At the time of the 1910 Mexirrn Revolution. poslcards were

a relatively neu' phenomenon. The Austro-Hungarian Empire

h,,l i..,,o.1 rho fi'.r n^<tcard in 1869. B,v 1873 the US PosL

Olfice Den;rt ment hepan t(sllinp lhe'e crrd. r(, no>tmasterS tO

streamline communicalions belr,veen businesses. These rvere

not pi, lure po:ltard' : rJther. the; were blrnk. postage-preprrd

cards similar to those still l-rl1ab1e today from rhe US Postal

:err ice u ith the rosr roe inrcrihed direcrlr rrn rhe crrJ :rnd

lhe rerer>e .ide left blank for a messJge. The:e earl; posrcrrd:

were privately printed, rectengulrr. rnd measured about 3rl:

br 5 ' 16, [s5 sliff picces uf paper'.ondu. ir, to bring sent

thr,.,,oh rhp meil

"Picture poslcards," w-ith one side devoted to an image, rre

r lr ne n[ nnrt, rrd u hrl. reel-nh^rn n,r<r.)r'.]c rrn r tr.a ^f,. ". I, ,,"..

nralrrp nosl.2r-d Rerl-nhot,' nocl, Jrdc <rr, h rs thn-e nrndrr, edr'' -' r'hr Wrlter Horne rre rrrrc nholoprrnhs nrodr, ed chemrcrllrH. ,. ' "t],from a negative onto photographic paper with r postcard back.

The rral photrr post.ard \ a>:.1 successfu] union of photography

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lrecialed componenl of riar photojournalism in this period.

rnd the role n[ thc nost, rr,-l in rhe ide,'lno:erl rle'elonmenr ,rl

the United >tales has onl; brgun to he ex..rmined.

"lnternational Br dge Between El Paso & Juarez," ca. 1916. Neg. No. 101521

Note the clear si0nature and Horne's typical catal0g number.

The gnlden age of pielurc pnstcards enincided with the &n*xiean

Rer.rlut ion anJ Amcli(f,n rvrr-preprre,lnc)5 ellorls rlong rhe

horder Durinp this cr.r .r nrrmher of enrlcnrenerrri:l nhorno-

raphers, Walter Horne among them, captured the exploir: trf

Pancho Villa, rncluding his rald on Columbus; Pershing: puni,

tivc expedition; thc US naval invasion of Veracruz; and other

evenis. Many of the battle siLcs rnd other rspecrs of the conflictwere accessible from the border, and Lhe posrcard photographers

hacl a ready, market in the thousands of National Guardsmen

encamped there.

Horne is considered one of the best-knor,vn real-phoLo-post-

crrd phot,rgnphcrs rnd postcard wholesalers of the Nttexican

Revolutron be cause of his subjee L matter rnd the shcer volume of

his work. He photographed innumerable scenes of the Mexican

Revolutron, mrnl of them violent in nature. His poslcards r,vere

boLrsht hr rhes,,l,liels;rnrlpen.r':rl nrrhlr, ,.nrr)r rl ,rl rh"ilnror-imiL; to thc ectron rnd mailed thror-rghout rhe lvorld.

Walter H Horne (1883 1921) arrived in El Paso in 1910,

lemrininp rhele unrrl hi. dertlr eler..n re,rr. l,rrel He had comc'- " b

from Hallor,vell, N4aine, where his ancestors had setrled. har-ing

come by u'ay of Colorado and California. There in Ha11owell.

generations ol Hornes, including Walter's father, il'ere tanners.

Horne's decisror-r to move Lo El Paso, a cenLer of political opposi-

tion in Mexico since 1906, n as fortuiLctus. Francisco L lr,{adero,

the rer.olutionarl. challenger to the long-rime authoritarian

Mexican president, Porfino Diaz, undersLood the geogrcphr.rl

^-'r -^rr+r '-r -r--rr'^^-^^ of the El Paso-CuidadJudrez border,drru PrrrrLrl ar JrErrrrrlJ L tL(

knor,ving that r,r'hoever controlled Cd. Juarez conLrolled northern

Mexico. El Paso's direct railroad line to Mexrco Cit,v would be

used to transport rebel troops and horses as w-e11 as eqr-rrpmcnt

and munitrons purchased in El Paso.

It appears that Horne came to the Southr,vest, like thousands

of others, in search of an and climate Lo recover from tubercu-

losis. None of his letters housed in the collection ltealrnrr his

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"Post Office and Grocery Store at Co umbus, N.l\4 , looted by Villa's Bandits," ca. l916

Neg No. 151701. Nole the clear signature: "W H Horne."

8l tl Polscio

na me In the Snecial Collecri, ,n\ den2rl mcnr oI rhe I I Pasu Pub]ic

Librar; spccihcally menlron the malady by name. but one says

that "his health [had] . broken down while he was employed

in New York" and relers to his search for a more agreeable

climate. Although he apparently had little previous lnterest ln

photography. he saw the financial polenlial of the real-phoro

noqrcard He heoan cor,erinsthe US-Vexico holderconflict and

nrhor alempnt< nf ,.lail-- lifg jn 1[g EI PaSO-Cd. JUArez area.

Spnng 1911 found Francisco Madero's revolutionary army

camped on the outskirts of Cd. luarez. rhreatening the Mexican

Army garnson. In ear\- May Madero attacked and took Cd.

hrarez from its defenders as E1 Pasoans watched from the roofs

of their homes. One postcard, attributed to Horne, has the

Apparatas azd hllaterial.r. s7

The R. O. C.

hand-letrered cantion 'On the Roof Garden of Hotel Paso del

(Norte). The only Hotel in the World offering its GuesLs a Safe,

Comfortable Place to Vlew a Mexrcan Revolution." Horne's

no.iclrd. frnm thic rerrod also documented \amn Iife nr flrv"_*' "" r"_'_r

Paso's Fort B1iss, military prrades, bulllights. rnd "Mexican

scenes By the end olJuly lall he wrole oiselling 700 cards

rlcnictino thc lcr nlrrr rnn

For the next several r'ears Horne seems to have contented'"__ /'hrmself with seliing postcards of local events and scenes, as

well as engaging in other business interests. In 1913, as further

cr rden.e oI thrs dedi,al ion lo do, umenling and marketing

rmroe- of horder li[e rnd errenrs he rrrrore of har ino nrrrchrsed''''_b'".-

"a Graflex $135 outfrt. The best camera on the market. The lens

alone cosl $50.50 " The Graflex camera, manufactlued b;- Kodak

between 1907 and 1926, was partrrularl)' popular because itrrsed sheet film ernored r sheet at a trme )o rndir jdrr;l rrhot,,q

corrid he nro( ecced immedirrelr When Hnrne firc slJrleJ oul

in the business he used a Kodak Model 3A camera, which also

^..,1,..^,1 -.-, .-., I .i- -eorrire- hrrr rrced rnll filmPluuu(ru P('5r(Jlu 5rzf il\|ru,Ll^.-^ ,l ^ . J I L; ^Lnrnorrnhr l,r npu/\n4nAr< [n lrnrrrrVI lul ll( al>U >UlU lll) Pllr'Lvbr rr, 'rr trilu{' )

lql4 he r'rrore his sistel lhxl he r,rrs rdrerrisrng his phorographs

'^ I ^ ' -r '^ ^ ^ lneTs alonq rhe hi'rder with limiLedal lU PU)l\ dlu) lll llr w>Pdp\

success. Hoprng for wholesale orders, he stated that he had "put

oul over 30,000 postcards. Sent some to Atlantic City, NJ., Los

Angeles, Calif. etc. etc. (1 & 2000 lots)." By May he wrote his

parents that he was "16,000 cards behind with orders nght norv.

Shrpped 7,800 cards to NY. City today."

Horne's busrness exnanded with the Columbus raid. A letter"_"'_'_"" _,'r'^_'

to his mother, dated March 21, 1916, states, "We were the first

ones into Columbus with cameras, and the first ones out with

negalives, consequently we beat them all to the newspapers; gol

our stuff into Chicago, New York, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco

over twelve hours ahead of the others . . . these papers are dead

anrious lor nhoto.. . . . We Are oell rno orr nn\r, rrds as fast asb' " "'b

possible. have two men and two girls uorking. In a pust>cnpt

he added, "We made 2700 photos todly." In August he wrote:''Am nrndrreino 5 OOO nncleards e r.lrv (rrnnlr nn\r py.hrnoeq

and stores all along the border. . . Shall go to Demrng N.Mex.

lomorrow toshoot up the Dela\ are troops. Big.amp there.'

Hornes real-photo post!ards r,rere printed on gaslighr. devel-

oping-ouC' manufactured postcard paper. "Gaslight" referred to

photographic paper with emulsion sensitive enough to light that

it worked under gaslight illumination. "Developing-out" meant

that Lhe exposed paper had to be placed rn a developing solution

to hrino nrrt Ihe ni, lrrre rrrhererr "nrintinq-or rl nrner did not'.- " "b.-_ ' r" b '-'

Post Card Printer.The R. O. C. Post Card Printer is

nrrJc for thc man uho Jcsircs an incx-pensive, yet rapid and tnist\torthymachine for printing cleveloping-outpost cards,

The R. O. C. Post Card I'rinternry be used with either artificial orday light, but the use of artificial lightis recomrnended owing to its greateruni forrnity.

The nner:'inn nf rhe R. O. C.Post Card Printer is similar to that o{an ordinary hand-printing pressl as

Slo\nrF Prnrt€rvi$ frort r€moved fo.cbnteirg oegN(i!e.

rvhich glass can be removed or

shown in the acconrpanying illustration.Drop the card into place against the negatir.e, close the frame by tneans ofthe small hand lever; at the expiration of the exposure pull backon thelever, rvhich opens the frame and drops the exposed card. The action ofclosing the framt autotnaticaily opens the exposure shutter, and opening theframe closes it- Every mechanical Ieature is positive in action, an<l practi-caily impossible to get oui of order.

The negative is placed in position by rernoving the front ol the printer,and lifting out the spring retained back as shorvn in above iliustration. Theprinting opening is nrade full cabinetsiz-e, and a cut-out is furnished forpost card size, so that the entrre sur-face of the card may bc printed, or anyportion masked as desired; both nega-tir.e and mask being retained firmly inposition by the strong springs at eachend of the frame. The back of the)ight box is fitted rith a sheet of fineground glass lor diffusing the light,replaced irstrntly.

f'he wood parts are constructed of chcrry, bandsomeiy finished, allbrass fittings polished and lac<1uerecJ.

The Price.R. O. (. no:r ('i'J I)rinr(r,

Advertisement for the R.0.C. Post Card Printer, the same model

used by Horne. Courtesy Todd Gustavson, Technrcal Department

curator at the Geo. Eastman House, Rochester NY

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Top right: 0n the back of one postcard by Horne depicttng a

partlcularly graphtc scene (not shown) is this note: "This man was

kilied in Villa's raid, Columbus N.M. . will be discharged aboul

Tuesday Aug. 1st." Neg. No. 101525.

Below: "Sandstorm in Camp,"ca.1916, Neg. No.101523.

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require developing solution After berng exposed. the photographs

were simply fixed with hypo solurion and washed.

The invention of a postcard printer in 1910 by R.O.C., rhe

Rochester Optical Company, a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak,

facilitated the postcard boom. It cost $7.50, with a 4O-percent

discount to professionals. A beautiful, compact contraption made

oI handsomely finishcd cherrr r,r'ood. p.rlished and la. quered.

and u-rth brass fittings, it r,vas made for rapid developing-our of

postcards. The blank card stock. purchased from Kodak, was

nlaced in the deviee zolrnsl lhe neoatrve 'he Irame wa: then

closed b1,6s3ns of a sma11lever. Once the exposure was made, the

lever w-as pulled back, opening the frame and dropping the tard.

Horne's many 1r:ews on his postcards were capti0ned in white,

numbered, and often dated. UnfortunaLely, his cataloguing key

.rr Jrdger. r,rhr, h he unduubredly u)cd xs a method of orgr-nizing prinrs rnd negrrire: inlo a filing,y:rem and lor fillrng

customer's orders, has not been found. Many of his cards bear

numbers in high triple digrts, indicative of rhe number of rmages

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he had made. The calegories ol his postcards in the collection at

the El Paso Public Library include Army Camps, Bridges, Bull

Fights, Columbus NM, Dead, Execurions, Fort Bliss, National

Guard, Punitive Expedition, and sixteen others. Horne, or

most likely one of his workers, wrote the caption for an image

in freehand dlrectly on each negative. Typically this was done

with indian red ink apphed wirh a finely poinred sreel pen. The

lettenng had to be done backwards, from right to 1efi, so that itwould appear correcily on the prinr The fina1 resuh was a white

caption appearing across the bottom of the card, and on every

real-phoio postcard made from the negative

Horne's postcard business flourished for the next few years.

In September 1917 he wrote that he had Deming, New Mexico,

"covered with cards." His letters of this period, however, make

fewer references to hrs postcard business than to a number of

shooting galleries rhat he and his partner operated in various

locations. Surely Horne's postcard business felt the rmpact o[

Lhe mor ement ol troops au;1 from the border: in tebruary lo I7

Pershing and his force of reglular Army troops rerurned from

63 tl Pslarir

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-N.lvl.N.G. arnves at Columbus, N.lV.," ca. 1916. Neg. No. 005793.

their search lbr Pancho Villa. A week later the National Guard

lrdops \ ere ordered brck ro t heir home rtrtes. bur befole ihey

could return, Pre sident Wilson ordered the retention of most of

them in the face ol war rn Europe.

Horne r,vrote hrs brother in December 1917 that he was

thinking o[ returning to Maine to open shooting galleries there,

but also noted that business was still good. In his next ietter,

rr ritlen in :entemher lQlR he r^ rnte thet , narl nAr..r.-.... ...".."^l.^...,., wasrunnlng

the hrrsiner* in Deminq rr hile he rrn r rhnrn.rrnhr oallerr

and shooting galleries in El Paso. Horne's posrcard buslness

undoubtedly got additional stimulus rfter June I4-L7, I9I9,when Vi11a's forces attacked Carranza troops in Cd Juarez.

American lroops. crvallv dnd infantr). onLe agrin mored

acros5 the border. cngaging the main \ illistr forcr r,, rth rifle.

marhine-o". qnrl ert illerr'fire in rrrh,rt rrrnrrlrJ he \ ill'...-' .,! vrrra>rrrrr) )

swan song. About this time Horne< healLh apparenlly slarled

to iake a turn lbr Lhe worse.

The collection of Horne's personal correspondence ends here,

with only a few more documents giving clues to the rest of his

64 tl Palacio

story. Horne's health failed completell-. His brother Edr,vard

arrrred rn Fl Paso in (entember l92 l Lobc r,rLthhrm drrrino hi-

fina1 davs. Horne's will is in the collection, as well as a certifi-

crLe of marrilte to Adelina Zuvia, datedJul;' 21, 192L A son,

Edward Elmer Horne, also is mentioned.

Horne died October 13, 1921, and is buried in El Paso's

Fverpreen Cemelerr His l99361 oI real ohoto nostcrrd, docu-

ments life and events on the US-Mexrco border between 1910

and l9) | more comnrchensirelr th.rn the work ,rf rnr ,rtlrcr

phottrgrapher. Horne s poslL ard: L an be vrerved as rmpoltant

sources of visual historical documentation. Their images. and

p,rssibl) c\en lhe messages r,r rrttcn by thcir sen,ler:. rereal

details of the conflict, including materiel and weaponry, as well

as the attitudes of American soldiers toward their adversaries

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Charles Bennett was chief curator and assistant director at the Palace of the Gover-

n0rs from l9B3-2003. To see an0ther p0stcard by W.H. Horne and read Bennett's I st

of sources, visit e palaclo.org.