Ira M. Whiteman Collection of Photographs and Military Paraphernalia, 1898-1899

Gift, James Holloway, 2004.

The Ira M. Whiteman Collection of Photographs and Military Paraphernalia is open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

The Ira M. Whiteman Collection of Photographs and Military Paraphernalia is the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Ira M. Whiteman Collection of Photographs and Military Paraphernalia, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Virginia Hay Smith, 2007.

Illinois soldier.

Ira Whiteman was born in 1871 and lived in the small Illinois farming town of Lexington, located near the twin university towns of Bloomington and Normal. He married Flora Belle Faddis in 1904. In 1910 they adopted a daughter, Grace Irene Smith, from an Industrial Home in Bloomington. Grace died two weeks after the birth of her son, James Holloway, who with his siblings, grew up in Chicago. These Holloways were the grandchildren of Whiteman, who had served in the army in the Spanish-American War.

Ira Whiteman was mustered in as a private in the 2nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry in May, 1898, and then appointed corporal in Jan.,1899, at Havana, Cuba. Returning to Lexington, Illinois in April, 1899, Whiteman brought back with him a number of army photographs and military artifacts, including metal buttons, some medals and pins, an epaulet and what is said to be a piece of the USS Maine.

Whiteman died in 1944.

Spanish-American War photographs and military artifacts. Includes sixteen photographs, some by Waterman of Chicago, which show Cuba in 1899 and Camp Cuba Libre in Jacksonville, Fla., other Havana Harbor scenes and a picture of Waterman in his uniform at home. Artifacts include a wood fragment purported to be from the USS Maine, an epaulet, several badges, medals and ribbon bars, and two metal buttons.

Papers are organized in the following series:

Title Box Series 1: Photographs, 1898-1899 and undated Box 1 Series 2: Artifacts, ca. 1898-1899 Box 1

• Names
  • Maine (Battleship).
  • United States. Army. 2nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry (1898-1899).
  • Whiteman, Ira M., 1871-1944
• Geographic Coverage
  • Camp Cuba Libre (Fla.) -- Photographs
  • Cuba -- Photographs
• Subject
  • Chicago
  • Photographs
  • Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Campaigns -- Cuba
  • Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Medals