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History

The Spanish Civil War – A Country Divided

by Melissa McCaffrey on August 20, 2025

in Cultural History,History,Politics

The Spanish Civil War was a period of great political turmoil and upheaval in Spain. The war broke out on July 17, 1936, when a conservative military group led by the generals Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco tried to overthrow the country’s democratically-elected republican government. Political and social tensions had been building in Spain for years prior to the actual revolt.

The military rebels expected an easy win and were surprised to encounter a huge popular resistance, especially in more densely populated areas. In a very short time, Spain was split in half, with one zone controlled by the government, or the Republicans, and the other by rebels, known as the Nationalists. Three years of bloodshed and fighting followed. General Franco quickly emerged as the commander of the Nationalist side, facing the Republican leaders of President Azaña, Prime Minister Largo Caballero, and Prime Minister Negrín. The war eventually ended with a Nationalist victory on April 1, 1939, with an estimate 500,000 and Franco would rule Spain as dictator until his death in 1975.

Not surprisingly, numerous books, pamphlets, and periodicals were published during the war, covering both sides of the conflict in real time, as well as international observations on the war and statements of solidarity and sympathy with one side or the other. Here at Bernett Rare Books, we currently have a collection of Spanish Civil War publications which reflect both the Republican and Nationalist sides of the struggle, as well as international sympathies with and coverage of the war. The following three titles were all published in Spain during the war:

    Gómez Aparicio, Pedro. ¡A Bilbao! Estampas de la Guerra en Vizcaya. Granada: Librería Prieto (Ediciones Imperio), 1937. Octavo (17.5 x 12.2 cm). Original color printed wrappers; 354 pp., illustrated. Some light wear and soiling to covers, mild browning to pages, overall very good. (52999) $1,750

 

 

 

The first edition of the work by the Spanish journalist Pedro Gómez Aparicio (1903-1983). Born in Madrid, Aparicio served as the President of the Asociación de la Prensa de Madrid, served as deputy director of the Agencia EFE, and was awarded several prizes and medals for his work. He served as editor-in-chief of the newspaper El Debate, of the magazine Mundo, and was the founder and first director of the Granada-based newspaper El Ideal. He also worked as a professor of journalism and was awarded a Medalla al Mérito en el Trabajo personally by Franco. During the first two decades of Francoism, Aparicio was given his own radio commentary show on Radio Nacional de España, which was broadcast together with the news report. He was popularly known as “Pedrogo”. Prior to these years, during the Second Republic, he was an outspoken critic of the regime, which caused him to come up against issues of censorship. When the war broke out, he moved to Burgos and served as a war correspondent for the rebel troops.

This volume is dedicated to General Franco and all of those who fight, and sets out to cover the campaign in the north of Spain. It is divided into sixteen chapters laid out in a table of contents at the back. There are scattered laid-in illustrations from photographs of soldiers and civilians, and one fold-out map with tissue paper overlay showing the March 30th offensive.


ABC. Diario Ilustrado. Edición de Andalucia. No. 10340 (18 Julio 1936) through No. 11181 (2 Abril 1939). Approximately 841 issues total bound in 32 volumes of the Seville edition of the long-running conservative Catholic and monarchist Spanish journal, covering the period of the Spanish Civil War, being the majority of years XXXII through XXXV of the journal’s publication, with 5 volumes for 1936, 12 each for 1937 and 1938, and 3 for 1939. Quarto (12 1/2 x 9 1/4 inches). Cloth-backed boards with gilt-stamped title, month, and year to spine. Light rubbing and abrasions to covers, some light scattered toning and foxing to interior, overall very good. Sevilla, 1936-1939. (53365) $15,000

ABC was founded in Madrid in January 1903 by Torcuato Luca de Tena y Álvarez-Ossorio and published by Prensa Española, and in October of 1929 the Seville edition began publication. Over the years, 11 different editions have existed, although Madrid and Seville are the primary two.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civl War, ABC Madrid was seized by the republican government, and the newspaper changed its politics to support the Republicans. ABC Sevilla, on the other hand, was supportive of the Nationalists. After the war ended, ABC Madrid was given back to its original owners by Franco, under whom ABC became the best-selling newspaper in Spain. As late as 2005, it was still the third-best-selling newspaper in Spain, and the oldest in Madrid. Publication continues to this day. Many of the issues have bold photographic or illustrated covers, some with photocollage, while many of the later issues have very few or no illustrations. An important publication providing a Nationalist perspective from the critical years of the Spanish Civil War. Scarce institutionally.

 

SRI: El Camino de la Solidaridad. Unpaginated [40 pp.] magazine published during the Spanish Civil War by the Socorro Rojo Internacional (SRI, or International Red Aid), profusely illustrated. Small tabloid (14 1/2 x 10 5/8 inches). Original photomontage illustrated saddle-stitched wrappers. “Numero Gratuito” rubber-stamped to top of front cover, some light edgewear and minor chipping, crease along horizontal fold, light dust-staining to margins, overall very good. Madrid: Editorial Estampa, 1937. (53505) $1,500

This scarce Spanish-language magazine was a one-off publication, issued just six months after the start of the Spanish Civil War. It was published on behalf of the SRI (Socorro Rojo Internacional, or International Red Aid), a Spanish-Soviet organization formed by the Comintern, or Communist International, in 1922. The SRI was created to function as a sort of international Red Cross, independent of any religious organization, and in Spain was mostly involved in aid activities in the Republican zone, such as creating and running refugee camps, soup kitchens, libraries for soldiers, mobilization of dentists to the front, organization of charity drives for food and clothing, transportation networks between hospitals and the front, and the repurposing of various buildings into field hospitals, blood banks, and makeshift schools. Many of their activities had children as a central focus. (The Visual Front: Posters of the Spanish Civil War from UCSD’s Southworth Collection, 1998)

This publication highlights the SRI’s involvement in relief efforts. There are photo essays regarding sanitation work, the establishment of blood banks in Madrid and the provinces, dentistry work, the establishment of schools and children’s homes, refugees, and even reproductions of propaganda. There are many images which show the human cost of war, especially women and children affected by the fighting. The front cover features a photomontage designed by Spanish artist and graphic designer Ricardo Yesares Blanco, who signed his works “YES”. Scarce institutionally; as of June 2025, OCLC locates only two physical holdings at North American institutions.

 

 

Additionally, we have in our inventory two important publications from abroad, covering the war in great detail. The first of these was published in Paris for much of the duration of the war. Occident: Le Bi-Mensuel Franco-Espagnol. Year I, no. 1 (25 October 1937) through Year II, no. 39 (30 May 1939) (all published). Paris: Imprimerie Georges Lang, 1937-1939. Folio (58.5 x 38.5 cm). 1/2 leather with marbled boards, original illustrated newsprint self-wrappers bound in; each issue approximately 8 pp. Evidence of previous folds, some light abrasions and edgewear to boards, minor splitting to leather along spine, very minor toning, overall very good. (50048) $8,500

 

 

A complete run of all 39 issues of the Paris-based periodical, in tabloid format, dedicated to the solidarity of the French and Spanish people during the Spanish Civil War. This cultural journal contains articles by noted international cultural figures on various aspects of the war, Spanish culture, French interests in Spain, and other subjects, and is profusely illustrated throughout after photographs, caricatures, political cartoons, reproductions of posters, etc.

The fourth issue contains the “Manifest aux intellectuels espagnols”, a manifesto in support of General Franco and Franco’s Spanish intellectuals, signed by intellectuals from various right-wing factions. The scarce serial presents a compendium of in-depth articles and political analysis, but is perhaps most impressive for its rich trove of visually arresting images, with many photographs showing the destruction wrought during the war.

 

 

The second is a two-volume set issued by a prominent Soviet writer, journalist, and revolutionary. Ehrenburg, Ilya. (Erenburg, Il’ia.). Ispaniia. 2 volumes (102, 151 pp.), subtitled “UHP – Do 18 Iiulia 1936 Goda” (Until July 18, 1936) and “No Pasaran! – Grazhdanskaia Voina, Iiul’-Dekabr'” (The Civil War, July-December), profusely illustrated throughout. Large quarto (12 1/8 x 8 7/8 inches). Original embossed cloth, volume 2 with mounted title illustration. Some light rubbing and minor soiling to clovers, cover illustration to volume 2 slightly browned and rubbed, light toning and foxing throughout, a few spots of minor marginal damp-staining, first volume with handwritten inscription to front flyleaf, overall very good. Moscow and Leningrad: IZOGIZ/State Publishing House for Fine Arts, 1937. (53443) $8,500

Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1967) was a prolific Soviet writer, journalist, translator, revolutionary, and prominent member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, who became first known for his reporting during WWI, WWII, and the Spanish Civil War. During the Spanish Civil War, he became directly involved in the military activities of the Republican camp and often accompanied the Republican army as a reporter for the newspaper Izvestiya. He was also frequently allowed by Stalin to visit Europe to help campaign for peace and socialism.

These two volumes together comprise a pictorial history of the Spanish Civil War, devoted to the Spanish people’s struggle for independence. Each volume contains numerous black-and-white journalistic photographs and illustrations depicting daily village life, families, soldiers, meetings and gatherings, propaganda, war damage, with some graphic images of the dead and wounded. Each of the images is captioned in Cyrillic, many with paragraphs of descriptive text. There are several photographs by noted photographers such as Eli Lotar, Robert Capa, Oples, Reisner, and Chim (David Seymour). Alongside the photographs, the second volume also contains a John Hartfield photomontage and reproductions of numerous political posters. The covers of Volume 1 were designed by Eugene Golyahovsky, and Volume 2 was designed by El Lissitzky and Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers. Scarce institutionally.

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The History of Horse Doping

by Melissa McCaffrey on May 17, 2021

in Cultural History,History,Science

News stories have been swirling in recent days regarding the winner of the most recent Kentucky Derby, Medina Spirit. Following the race, Medina Spirit failed an initial drug test with his blood testing positive for betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory drug. The horse’s trainer has since acknowledged that the horse was treated with an anti-fungal ointment which contains betamethasone. A second blood test, called a “split sample” will be done. The results will take several weeks, but if the second test comes back positive, Medina Spirit will be disqualified as the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby. However, the horse has been cleared to run in the upcoming Preakness, and rigorous testing will be conducted on the horse on race day.

The history of horse doping in various forms goes back centuries. As far back as Roman times, the use of hydromel (a beverage similar to mead) had such an effect on chariot racing that it became an offense punishable by death. Scattered reports exist from the 16th and 17th centuries regarding the usage of stimulants, possibly arsenic, and the prohibition of “exciting substances and methods” in horse racing in England.

A law was passed in the UK in 1903 which prohibited horse doping, and by 1912, tests existed which tested a horse’s saliva for various substances such as caffeine, cocaine, or morphine. A positive test result meant an immediate disqualification from the race. However, horse doping really took off in the United States when the modern-day system of betting was legalized in 1933. Back then, estimates are that up to 50% of horses were doped, which had the additional effect of increasing injuries. The most frequent culprits were cocaine, heroin, caffeine, and strychnine. Later in the century, anti-doping efforts were increased and standardized by the Fédération Equestre Internationale, or FEI.

Nowadays, about 1100 substances are classified by the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) as performance-enhancers. These fall under the categories of stimulants, tranquilizers, bronchodilators, and behavioral modifiers.

Here at Bernett Penka, we currently have in our inventory a fascinating and early scientific report on testing horses for performance-enhancing drugs via saliva and urine tests.

(Drugs & Photography) – Williams, George A. & Ernest C. Stone. Washington Horse Racing Commission Research. Unpaginated (54 typed leaves printed recto only) original typed research report by Williams, a veterinarian, and Stone, a chemist, documenting their attempts to effectively perform saliva and urine tests on thoroughbred racing horses to detect the existence of performance-enhancing drugs and stimulants, including information on the collection of fluids, a chemical analysis of synthetic drugs, and the effect of the drugs when administered to horses in varying amounts, illustrated with ten original photographs of various substances at a microscopic level and one page with several small original chemical illustrations. Overall very fine condition. 4to. Original cloth-covered boards, title impressed in green ink. Some very slight rubbing, especially to corners and edges of spine. N.p. (Olympia, Washington) (Washington Horse Racing Commission) n.d. (1941). (50336)

The beginning of the report lays out the method used by Williams and Stone to photograph alkaloid-double-salt crystals, which they appear to have developed themselves via a series of experiments. They settled upon a method using “triple S panchromatic film and exposing for a period of from five to ten seconds (depending on the crystals photographed and the amount of light available)” which produced “satisfactory photomicrographs”. They follow this with the exact solutions they used to develop the film as well as to fix the photomicrographs. Their pioneering work appears similar to the methods used beginning in the 1970’s during Reagan’s “War on Drugs” and later to test for performance-enhancing drugs in humans. A possibly unique and highly technical work.

 

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Historical and Documentary Photography in 19th and Early 20th Century America

by Melissa McCaffrey on May 31, 2017

in 19th-Century,20th-Century,Art,Cultural History,Photography,Recent Acquisitions,Travel,United States

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were periods of major change and important historical events throughout the United States, as well as key developments in photography technology. Life could be documented in a way that was never possible before, both physically and economically. Photography allowed for more precise archiving than either lithography or engraving. Roger Fenton and Philip Henry Delamotte were among the first photographers to demonstrate the immense potential photography carried for chronicling important events with their images of the Crimean War and the construction of the Crystal Palace in London for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Daguerreotypes were introduced in 1839 as the first complete practical photographic process, and remained the most common commercial process until the late 1850s, when the collodion process took over in popularity. This new process produced glass negatives which could be replicated multiple times, unlike the daguerreotype which resulted in a single, unique image. It was also relatively inexpensive compared to daguerreotypes, as the daguerreotype process required expensive polishing equipment and costly silver-plated copper for producing the images. Often printed on albumen paper, the collodion print took two forms, wet and dry, the former which necessitated a darkroom and was more popular with portrait photographers, the latter which required much longer exposure time and therefore was more often limited to landscape photography. Ambrotypes and tintypes are examples of photographs produced via the collodion process.

During the 1880s, gelatin dry plates largely replaced the collodion process. Utilizing glass plates with a dry emulsion of silver suspended in gelatin was more convenient and could also make more sensitive images. The first dry plate factory, the Eastman Film and Dry Plate Company, was established in 1879, a reflection of the popularity of the process. In 1884 Eastman developed dry gel on paper, or film, replacing the photographic plate and with it the necessity of carting around boxes of glass plates and chemicals. And in July 1888 Eastman’s first Kodak camera was put on the market, allowing anyone to take a photograph and let someone else do the processing. Photography went even more mass-market in 1901 with the introduction of the Kodak Brownie camera.

F.A. Bernett currently has for sale several collections of interesting and important early American photography which correspond to and reflect these important changes and developments in the photographic process and the increasing commercial availability of photography equipment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collection of 19 Vintage Cabinet Card Views of the 1889 Johnstown Flood. Group of 19 cabinet cards by a local photographer, R.Y. Nice of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, depicting the aftermath of the famous flood and subsequent damage in the town of Williamsport, including Nice’s studio and other local commercial buildings partially underwater, townspeople navigating the streets in rowboats, birds-eye views, and scenes of destruction and debris, some with captions incised into the negatives. Cabinet cards with mounted albumen prints measuring 4″ x 6 1/4″, numbered 2 through 20 in the lower left corners, some with Nice’s name printed on the mount. Williamsport, Pennsylvania 1889.

The Johnstown Flood was the worst flood to hit the United States in the 19th century, causing the deaths of 2,209 people and the destruction of 1,600 homes. It was the largest loss of civilian life the United States had seen up to that point. The flood was one of the first major disaster relief efforts to be handled by the newly-founded American Red Cross, under the leadership of Clara Barton. (48214)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mather’s Historical Oil Region Views of Western Pennsylvania. Part I. Mather’s Historical Photographs. Mather, John A. 14 leaves, 2 pages of text, 1 engraving, and 11 original gelatin linen-backed photographs regarding the drilling of the Drake Well by Col. Edwin L. Drake in 1859, the first oil well ever drilled in the United States, scenes and figures depicted in the photographs include a portrait of Edwin Drake, Drake at the well, oil traders, and the surrounding areas of “Oil Creek” including Foster Farm, Funkville, John Wait Farm, and John Benninghoff Run. Spine slightly shaken. Oblong 4to. Black cloth boards. Titusville, Pennsylvania (John A. Mather) 1895. Ink inscription on front endpaper “Miss Margaret Bond from Mrs E. Mather, Christmas 1905”

Edwin Drake was hired by the Seneca Oil Company in 1858 to investigate suspected oil deposits in the Titusville region of Pennsylvania. Prior to this, petroleum oil was known of, but there was not yet a market for it. Drake began drilling, with pipe and steam, but progress was slow and the Seneca Oil Company had pulled their backing. Using his own money and that of friends, Drake persevered and on the morning of August 28th, after months of drilling at the rate of approximately three feet per day, Drake’s driller looked into the hole and saw crude oil. The Drake Well prompted the first big investments in the petroleum industry and additional drilling in the area that became known as Oil Creek, ushering in the Pennsylvania oil rush.

John A. Mather was the pioneer photographer of Pennsylvania’s Oil Region. Hearing of the exploding activity in the Oil Creek Valley, Mather and his wife moved to Titusville in 1860 where he began working with a series of makeshift traveling darkrooms/studios. He transported his equipment through the oil fields by ox-pulled wagon or flatboat, and sold his photographs to a local audience. During his years photographing the Pennsylvania oil rush, he amassed a collection of over 20,000 glass plate negatives. However, due to damage from floods and fires, only 5,000 have survived to this day, preserved in the collections of the Drake Well Museum. Scarce; as of February 2017, WorldCat locates only three holdings in North America. (48619)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph Album Documenting the Aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Collection of approximately 99 original black-and-white photographs showing the destruction caused by the earthquake and resulting fires, and the subsequent clean-up and reconstruction efforts, most pages with hand-written captions, with specific sites depicted including the Ferry Building, Market Street, burning buildings, refugee camps, City Hall, the Hearst Building, the Palace Hotel, gutted churches, rubble, and relocated shops, some photos with signature for R.J. Waters & Co. and caption within the plate, label affixed to inside front cover for Waters Company, San Francisco. Photos overall in very good condition. Various sizes to 8″ x 10″. Photos affixed to album leaves with photo corners and small dots of glue, many photos already loose, all pages detached from album. Oblong 4to. Cloth album. San Francisco (R.J. Waters & Co.) circa 1906.

The 1906 earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 am on April 18th, with a magnitude of 7.8. Over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed as a result of the quake and the subsequent fires, with 30 different fires destroying 25,000 buildings across 490 city blocks within three days. An estimated 3,000 people died. Initially only 375 deaths were reported, due in part to hundreds of ignored and unreported fatalities in Chinatown. To this day, it is still the deadliest natural disaster in California’s history. Up to 300,000 people were also left homeless out of a total population of 410,000, with some refugee camps remaining open for over two years. (48636)

  

 

 

 

 

 

Collection of Original Photographs of Alaska. Album comprising approximately 500 original photographs of various formats, the majority taken in and around the copper mining town of Kennecott, Alaska, during its heyday in the 1920s, including the Bonanza, Jumbo, and Erie mines, nearby towns such as Cordova, McCarthy, and Ruby, hunting and skiing trips, dogsledding, Eskimos, railroads, the Childs, Columbia, and Kennicott glaciers, and steamships, with 21 most likely unpublished photographs captioned “Mt Logan Alaska 1925 – June / Guided by Andy Taylor, Famous Alaskan Guide” being of particular interest, depicting the first successful expedition to the summit of Mt. Logan in the Yukon Territory, Canada’s highest peak, with photographs showing the team setting up camp, loading their sleds, and trekking, together with several pieces of ephemera including a telegram, a Pacific Line steamship catalog, and a newspaper clipping. Original album disbound and trimmed to fit, with original album pages and hand-written captions intact, some original photo corners replaced. Small folio. Housed in two contemporary albums. N.p. (Kennecott, Alaska), circa 1920s.

A geologist first approached the Alpine Club of Canada in 1922 with the idea of sending a team to summit Mt. Logan. A team of Canadian, British, and American climbers was assembled, and their trip was delayed from 1924 to 1925 due to delays in funding and preparation. They began their trip in early May, journeying from the Pacific coast by train, and then traversed the remaining 120 miles on foot to the Logan Glacier, where they established base camp. On June 23, 1925, the team of Albert H. MacCarthy, H.F. Lambart, Allen Carpé, W.W. Foster, Norman H. Read, and Andy Taylor became the first people to stand atop the summit of Mt. Logan.

The Kennecott Mines were discovered around the turn of the century, and confirmed as the richest known concentration of copper in the world at the time in 1901. Five different mines turned out incredible amounts of copper, at their peak generating $32.4 million worth of ore in a single year. The highest grades of ore were largely depleted by the early 1930s, with the mines closing gradually. The last train left Kennecott on November 10, 1938, leaving it a ghost town. In the 1980’s, the town became a tourist destination, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.  (48621)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Picture Journey to Farms in Idaho, Washington, Oregon. Spokane, Washington.- Pacific Northwest Farm Trio. 62 pp. promotional photo album containing 72 mounted silver gelatin photographs of farms, orchards, crops, and related agricultural activities from farms throughout the Pacific Northwest, each page with a typed descriptive caption below the photo, some of the photographs signed within the negative, known photographers include Asahel Curtis, Bradbury Williams, and Arthur Prentiss. One of the photographs coming loose, several pages with small tears to margins, some minor warping and toning of pages. Oblong 8vo. Leather. Some bowing to covers, rubbing and small losses along extremities, small splits at spine. Spokane, Washington (Pacific Northwest Farm Trio General Offices) n.d. (circa 1930).

The Pacific Northwest Farm Trio comprised the publications The Washington Farmer, The Idaho Farmer, and The Oregon Farmer. The views depicted in this album include apple farms in Washington, the Hood River Valley, the Willamette Valley, the Yakima Valley, tractors and farm machinery, harvesting and packing apples, planting wheat, cows on a dairy farm, sheep, chickens, turkeys, Arrowrock Dam, irrigation, vegetables, strawberry plants, and orchards. Very scarce; as of March 2017, this title is not listed through WorldCat. (48654)

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