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Barry, Richard Hayes.

[Cover title:] Japanese Russian War 1904. [A personal album of hand-captioned stereographic photographs documenting the Russo-Japanese War, with additional captioned photographs on loose leaves].

Port Arthur and vicinity, 1904.

Album (10” x 12”), original string-tied woven-grass over boards, manuscript title on upper cover. 98 half stereograph bromide photographs, 3.5” x 3.5”, most with manuscript captions, mounted in slits on 17 leaves, one photo mounted on paste-down, additional unused leaves. CONDITION: Good with starts to both the front and rear joints near the foot, some damp-staining to the edges of the boards and on several interior pages, with 16 of the 98 photographs sustaining some degree of water damage. There are 8 empty captioned photo mounts, and 13 empty photo mounts without captions that have indications of the presence of photographs in the past.

[with]

40 half stereograph bromide photographs and one complete stereographic photograph, mounted on 28 loose leaves, 27 with manuscript captions, 1 with typescript caption. 35 of the photographs are the left or right stereographic mate to the photographs in the album and are captioned differently from those in the album. 14 leaves measure 9” x 6.75” and contain two captioned photographs; 4 leaves range in size from 6.75” x 4.25” to 6.75” x 5.25” and contain 1 captioned photograph and an empty captioned photo mount; 9 leaves range in size from 6.75” x 4.25” to 6.75” x 5.25” and contain 1 captioned photograph; one photograph is only half present. CONDITION: Very good.

A significant and captivating photographic archive recording the first modern war from the perspective of an important figure in its documentation, pioneering American war correspondent and photojournalist Richard Barry.

This remarkable archive contains half stereographic photographs taken and captioned by Barry during the Russo-Japanese War, some of which illustrate his book, Port Arthur: A Monster Heroism. An image of the Hyposcope on p. 44 of the album appears opposite page 120 in Port Arthur: A Monster Heroism, and also on p. 244 of A Photographic Record of the Russo-Japanese War. One image, captioned “Soldier Faces” on tissue page 17 of this archive, has been positively identified as being one of the set of 100 images of the Japanese-Russo War stereographs issued by the Ingersoll View Company. Since a full set of the Ingersoll stereographs documenting the siege of Port Arthur could not be obtained, positive identification of the remaining stereographs in this archive as included in that set was not possible. Although Barry separated the stereographic photographs before mounting them, 35 of the stereographic mates to the photographs in the album are present and are mounted on the accompanying tissue paper pages and have notations indicating the location of the stereographic mate and their position (left or right) in the original stereograph.

The photographs in the album and on the tissue pages show images of Barry and his fellow journalists; life in Dalny, a town under Japanese jurisdiction near the fighting in Port Arthur; Japanese officers and Japanese military camp life near Port Arthur; displaced native Chinese and the effects of the war on the native populace; the Japanese Red Cross working with the wounded; Japanese trenches and life on the front lines; and images of the Japanese Grand Assault of October 29, showing bombing 800 yards from the line of battle.

Richard Hayes Barry, (1881 – ?) was born in Eau Clair, Wisconsin, to George and Harriet Barry. Harriet, a journalist and news editor, apparently was a great influence on her sons, as they both became journalists. Barry was in San Francisco working at various papers and magazines as a cub reporter when the Russo-Japanese conflict broke out. Only 23 at the time, he thought that covering the war would be an adventure which might help him firmly establish a career in journalism. While Barry was able to get promises from a couple of local papers to pay $10 each for his war report columns, he lacked sufficient funds to cover either his passage to China, or room and board upon his arrival. However, while in San Francisco, Barry had befriended an established reporter named Edwin Emerson, and he asked Emerson how he might get the money to cover the Russo-Japanese conflict. Uncertain that Barry was truly serious about going, Emerson told his young friend to find some funding for his passage to China before he would consent to additional help.

Barry was certainly a very self-confident young man: the first person he approached in order to obtain funds was the former Mayor of San Francisco, James D. Phelan. Barry was able to talk Phelan into giving him $100 to cover the cost of his passage. When Barry showed Emerson the cash, Emerson was convinced Barry was serious about covering the Russo-Japanese conflict and gave Barry a card to see Frank K. Lane, a California politician who had recently run for governor of the state. Lane took Barry to see prominent San Francisco banker, Daniel Meyer. Barry explained to Meyer why it was necessary for him to report on the war and how he had already secured $100 for his passage, but needed $200 more to pay his expenses. Meyer was so impressed with Barry that he immediately wrote a check for the requested sum.

Barry traveled steerage to Japan and waited 5 months in Tokyo for an assignment to a military unit. He was one of only 18 journalists and military observers assigned to the Japanese Third army, commanded by General Baron Nogi Maresuke (1849–1912), and his comrades in the journalism core included Jack London, Frederick Villiers, Stanley Washburn and James Ricalton. Barry was attached to General Nogi’s personal staff at Port Arthur, in what would be the epicenter of decision making for final battles of the war. He eventually became very close to General Nogi, whom he revered as a father figure. The one complete stereoview included here depicts Nogi astride his horse Kotubiki (Long Life). The caption refers to General Nogi as “Baron,” his title at the time. General Nogi was elevated to the title of Count after the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War. Following Nogi’s ritual suicide in 1912 for what Nogi believed to be his failings during the Russo-Japanese War, Barry reminisced about Nogi in the Septer 14, 1912 issue of the New York Times:

Nogi was a classic figure. Plutarch should have had him. He belonged with Cato and Brutus, with Socrates and Lycurgus. Of all the human beings I have ever known he rises in my memory as the one superb, complete person. He was at once soldier and poet, statesman and artist. Always he was the gentleman – wondrously gentle, and a man to the bone.

Since his war reports from the front lines had attracted a large following back home, Barry took the chance to return to the U.S. just before the Japanese final assault on Port Arthur in order to secure additional coverage assignments. In New York he was the only reporter who had seen action in Port Arthur, and managed to obtain many contracts with national magazines and newspapers. It was likely during this sojourn that Barry secured a contract with the Ingersoll View Company, and, Kodak No. 2 Stereo Camera freshly in hand, he returned in time for the final Japanese assault on Port Arthur. In April of 1905, just months before the end of the war, Barry published the book Port Arthur: A Monster Heroism, and was asked by President Theodore Roosevelt to visit the White House to discuss the conflict. President Roosevelt told Barry to get a message to the Japanese that they must hold Port Arthur and Korea at all costs. Barry contacted George Kennan, an American journalist in Japan at the time, who succeeded in passing the missive on to people of influence.

Following his adventures as a war correspondent and war artist during the Russo-Japanese conflict, Richard Barry became a nationally known news correspondent and novelist.

A valuable primary source for the study of the emergence of trench warfare, modern warfare, the history of the Russo-Japanese War, or the experiences of a major turn-of-the-century war correspondent and photojournalist.

REFERENCES: “Good-Bye,” Pacific Fancier, vol. 7, no. 6 (June 1909), p. 17; Emerson, Edward, “When West Met East,” Sunset, vol. 15, no. 6 (Oct. 1905), p. 523–524; Barry, Richard, “Memories of Nogi by his Friend Barry,” The New York Times, Sept. 14, 1912; Eastman Kodak Company, “The Stereo-Kodak at the Siege of Port Arthur,” American Amateur Photographer, vol. 17, no. 8 (Aug. 1905), p. 595; Kim, Seung-Young, American Diplomacy and Strategy toward Korea and Northeast Asia, 1882–1950 and After. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, p. 54.

Item #3662

Price: $6,500.00