Three Photographs of US Military Escorting Juan Ponce de León’s Remains Through San Juan for Reburial, August 1908

San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1908. Three photographs, each approximately 4.5 x 6 inches. Some tears and folds at corners; very good contrast; overall very good. Brown Brothers and Waldrop Photographic Co. stamps verso, with marks giving event details. Very good. Three photographs of the military parade that escorted the remains of conquistador Juan Ponce de León from the San José Church to the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista, both in the historic district of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Ponce de León, who led the first European explorations of what would become Puerto Rico and Florida, died in Cuba in 1521 from wounds incurred in Florida while fighting the native (truncated) Calusa people. His remains were interred in Havana, Cuba until 1559, at which point they were brought to the crypt of the San José Church.[1] Following an unsuccessful 1907 bid by Florida lawmakers to bring Ponce de León's remains to St. Augustine,[2] his remains were re-interred in the Catholic cathedral of San Juan Bautista.

These photographs show spectators watching this military parade through the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico, dated August 12, 1908. Marks verso identify the black-clad men as "Porto Rican Regiment + band", the entirely white-clad men as US Marines, and the men in white with Sam Browne belts as crew of the Cutter Algonquin, a US Coast Guard ship stationed in San Juan from 1902 to 1917. The regiments are described as "escorting Ponce de Leons bones".

[1] Robert Henderson Fuson, Juan Ponce de León and the Spanish Discovery of Puerto Rico and Florida (Newark, OH: McDonald & Woodward, 2000), 226.

[2] Florida, Legislature, House of Representatives, An Act to Remove the Remains of Ponce de Leon to St. Augustine, Florida, 1907, June 1, 1907, State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/339354. (Inventory #: List2743)