The White Hats in 1920

[Texas Rangers]:

[Five Early-20th-Century Press Photographs of Texas Rangers, Including Frank Hamer].

New York: Underwood & Underwood, March 1920. Five photographs, each measuring 7.25 x 9.5 inches. Typed captions affixed to each verso, also with Underwood & Underwood stamps to each verso. One photo with substantial tear at corner, costing a bit of the background image. Otherwise very good or better. Item #13178

An instant collection of vintage Texas Rangers photographs. The Texas Rangers, now a statewide investigative law enforcement agency, was formed in 1823 to protect Euro-American settlers in Mexican Texas, and was officially established in 1835. Throughout the 19th century, the Rangers, as an irregular military, defended Texians from attacks by Indigenous people as they expelled the Indigenous populations from their homelands, and engaged in conflicts including the Mexican-American and Texas-Indian wars. During this time they also became known for their harsh tactics, including extrajudicial killings. The force became more organized into the 20th century, though the tactics were slow to become more humane, particularly during the Mexican Revolution.


Offered here are five press photographs of the Texas Rangers from 1920. The photographs picture the Rangers in or around El Paso, "On the Banks of the Rio Grande" or "Near Ysleta, Texas." The Rangers are shown posing with their horses or on horseback -- in one, a Ranger shakes hands with a "Mexican Fiscale Captain," also on horseback -- and posing with an infant and its family. Two of the Rangers are identified in the captions as Captain Charles Stephens and Sergeant Hamer. Stevens (1868-1929) became captain of Ranger Company B in 1910; in 1929 he was killed in an ambush while working as a Federal Prohibition Agent. Hamer (1884-1955) was an on-again, off-again Ranger best known for his role in the posse that killed Bonnie and Clyde in 1934. He was played by Kevin Costner in the recent Netflix limited series about Hamer's hunt for Bonnie and Clyde, The Highwaymen.

Price: $1,500