In 1915, with “The Great War” entering its second year it made much sense to enlarge the Army and the Navy. The front page news on the “Bisbee Daily Review” shows a “new photo of President Wilson” signing a document. While little detail is given in the caption, it is clear that the President and Congress are trying to determine how to pay for the larger Army and Navy. Interestingly enough the proposals are raising taxes or taxing the rich through a “death tax”, both of which sound very familiar to the modern news reader.
One element of the photo catches my eye is the statement that this photo is “a new photo”. In a world that now takes hundreds of photos of the President as he walks across the lawn or plays with his dog, it is interesting to see a caption that alerts the viewer to a “new photo”. Photos were not as easy as they are now—we sometimes forget this. It took an entire crew to photograph the President for a portrait to be circulated in the press. Photography was still in its infancy. To put this in perspective, Ansel Adams did not even publish his first portfolio until 1927. A picture of the President was an interesting site in the newspaper that day. The photo itself was news enough some might say.
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Photo from: Bisbee daily review. (Bisbee, Ariz.), 18 Nov. 1915. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024827/1915-11-18/ed-1/seq-1/