Historical Portrait
Amos Besoyan (World War I, Tulare County)
Archive record
Historical portrait of Amos Besoyan from Tulare County, California, circa 1914. Public domain World War I era photograph from historical archive.
About this photograph
The archive identifies this as a portrait of Amos Besoyan from Tulare County, California, taken around 1914 during the First World War era.
Tulare County is located in California's San Joaquin Valley, a farming region that grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century through irrigated agriculture. The county library maintains a substantial local history photograph collection documenting ordinary residents, families, schools and businesses from the area.
The United States entered the First World War in April 1917. Selective Service registered approximately 24 million men, and around 4.7 million served. Local photography studios saw considerable demand from servicemen who wanted formal portraits made before their departure. These sittings were often arranged so families could keep a copy at home. For many young men, such a studio portrait was the only formal photograph ever taken of them. County historical collections across the United States consequently hold large numbers of these wartime portraits.
The photograph forms part of the Tulare County Library's holdings and was made publicly available through California Revealed, a statewide digitisation programme that works with libraries, archives, museums and historical societies across California.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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