Abstract
This paper explores the visual narratives of US soldiers' photo albums of the Philippine–American War. It focuses on the materiality, imagery, and narrative structure of these ego-documents and asks for their individual and social functions and usages. As I show, most albums of US soldiers framed the experience of war in the Philippines as a triumphant story of imperial conquest that dwelled on notions of masculinity, racial superiority, and exoticism. However, by analyzing the album of Lt. Koontz, who died during his military service in the Philippines, my paper also points to the unsettling potential of these albums and their shifting meaning once they reach the realm of the historical archive.