Photo albums and photographs dating from Richard Schneidewind's military service in Hawaii and the Philippines during the Philippine-American War. Images depict locations, street scenes, military camps and hospitals in the Philippines and Hawaii, and group photographs of military units. Also photographs and stereographs depicting Schneidewind's "Igorot villages": group photographs and individual portraits, scenes, dances, etc.; newspaper clippings documenting the tours, programs, advertising materials, and business contracts signed by Schneidewind and the Igorots.
Paper records include admission tickets and passes to Igorot Village exhibits at state fairs and expositions; advertising flyers and brochures for the Igorot Village exhibits; Schneidewind's contracts with Igorots Felingao and Ugaog [Ugaag?] (1905); newspaper clippings and articles reporting about Igorot Village exhibits in various locations; photographs and stereographs, with mostly staged images, of Igorot Village exhibits, as well as miscellaneous photographs, including Schneidewind's portraits; among miscellaneous items are Schneidewind's business card and 2 letters (one in French).
The Photo album contains mostly photographs of Hospital Corps officers, personnel, nurses and patients, as well as military ships, hospitals, historic buildings and street scenes in Manila, Makati, Caloocan, Corregidor Island, Honolulu, and other locations. Also includes undated photographs of scenes from the Igorot Village exhibits.
The two Scrapbooks contain newspaper articles and clippings, as well as some advertising materials. The larger scrapbook mostly contains U.S. materials, 1907-1909 and undated, and the European tour materials (some in French), dated 1913-1914. The smaller scrapbook in original binding contains materials from the European tour, 1911-1912.
The two Oversize folders contains loose materials found in the European tour scrapbook: an undated photograph of Igorot Village exhibit; undated group photograph containing portrait of Schneidewind's son Richard (his last name spelled Schneidowin); and 3 newspaper articles (1910, 1912 and undated)
Richard Schneidewind was a native and resident of Detroit, Mich. and veteran of the Spanish-American War (1898). Schneidewind joined the U.S. Army in 1898 as a nurse in the Field Hospital Corps. In the Philippines he was made the head nurse and treated men ill with typhoid and spinal meningitis. After contracting typhoid and not completely recovered, he was sent to Corregidor Island where his unit was building a convalescent hospital. Still a patient, Schneidewind was given light duties. He remained on the sick list until his discharge from the service in July 1899.
After his discharge Schneidewind stayed in the Philippines and married Gabina Dionicio R. y Gabriel in 1900. Gabina died in 1901 giving birth to their son Richard, who later became Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Michigan.
After Gabina's death Schneidewind returned to the U.S. In 1904 he worked at the St. Louis World's Fair where, among similar exhibits, he saw the "Igorot Village" exhibit that included 123 Igorots brought by the Dr. Truman K. Hunt's Igorot Exhibit Company.
By 1905 Schneidewind with his partner Edmund A. Felder formed the Filipino Exhibition Company. Schneidewind met Felder in 1904 when Felder was the Executive Officer of the Philippine Exposition Board at the St. Louis World's Fair. In 1905 they arranged a group of Igorot men and women from the Luzon mountain interior to be brought for a tour.
In 1906 Schneidewind married Selma Echholz. In 1907 he brought to the U.S. 40 Igorot people; 40 people in 1908; and in 1911 his company brought 55 people on a tour of Europe (France, England, and Belgium). Some people went on more than one journey.
Toward the end of the 1911 European tour the Schneidewind's company experienced serious financial problems. In winter 1913 American newspapers reported about starving Igorots wandering the streets of Ghent, Belgium. The U.S. government intervened, and in December 1913 the newspapers reported that all of the Igorots were sent back to the Philippines. In 1914 U.S. government put an end to exhibitions of Filipinos.
In 1915 Schneidewind managed exhibits of people from Samoa at fairs in California. In the 1920s Schneidewind settled in Detroit. He died in January 1949.
