| Within the discipline of history, photographs are seldom treated as legitimate cultural objects or historical documents that, in themselves, have independent stories to tell. Acting against that current, this thesis critically examines a large assemblage of late nineteenth-century photographs that depict the outdoor market culture of San Antonio, Texas. These photographs were never simply illustrations meant to silently accompany the written historical record. Rather, they were valued souvenirs sold by the multitude of commercial photographers that worked in San Antonio in this era. Studied in this light, these objects contradict the romanticized histories of San Antonio, a city undergoing rapid change and modernization as it moved into the twentieth century.;Through these photographs, new stories about nineteenth-century popular aesthetics, ethnic tensions, and tourism are brought to light. Acknowledging the previously overlooked agency of the visual record in San Antonio complicates our understanding of this era in the United States, and adds a valuable new perspective to the importance of photographs as reflections of the societies that created them. |
