Historical Portrait
Carl A. Meisenheimer (World War I, Tulare County)
Archive record
Carl A. Meisenheimer, Private in E Company, 2nd Infantry, A.E.F., from Cutler precinct, Tulare County. Public-domain World War I military portrait, 1914.
About this photograph
Carl A. Meisenheimer served as a private in E Company, 2nd Infantry, A.E.F., from Cutler precinct in Tulare County.
The United States entered the war in April 1917. Local studios photographed enlistees in uniform before they left, often producing the only formal portrait a young man ever sat for. Many were made so that a copy could stay at home.
Tulare County sits in California's San Joaquin Valley, a farming region that saw heavy settlement in the later nineteenth century and relied on irrigated agriculture.
The dating presents a puzzle. The archive record gives 1914, before American entry into the war, yet also offers the range 1914 to 1918. Whether the portrait was made when Meisenheimer enlisted or at another point in his service remains unclear from the record.
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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