Description

Description: This “yard long” or cirkut panoramic photograph displays the Camp Eustis, Virginia fire department members in dress uniform. They are lined up in front of the company’s fire fighting equipment. In the background is a domed building identified as Liberty Theatre. Image is signed in the negative by the photographer “Holladay”.

Overall: 9 1/2″ x 22 3/4″. Item #P00193

On March 7, 1918, the Army bought Mulberry Island and the surrounding land for $538,000 as part of the military build-up for World War I. Approximately 200 residents were relocated, many to the Jefferson Park area nearby in Warwick County. Camp Abraham Eustis was established as a coast artillery replacement center for Fort Monroe and a balloon observation school. It was named for Brevet Brigadier General Abraham Eustis, a 19th-century U.S. military leader who had been the first commanding officer of Fort Monroe, a defensive fortification at the mouth of Hampton Roads about 15 miles (24 km) east at Old Point Comfort in what is now the city of Hampton. Camp Abraham Eustis became Fort Eustis and a permanent military installation in 1923.

Condition: A quarter-size tear to the right of the gazebo-like structure (no emulsion loss), otherwise very good condition.