Content note: Photograph of two dead Filipino soldiers. This object is shown as it was published. Why
"A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition" (commercial stereograph, 1899)
A commercial stereograph sold to American households shows two dead Filipino soldiers behind their trenches at Malabon, captioned as a sacrifice to one man's ambition rather than a battlefield loss in a war both sides were fighting.
A commercial stereograph published in 1899 by Underwood and Underwood, with Strohmeyer and Wyman as publishers, sold to American households during the Philippine-American War. It shows two dead Filipino soldiers behind their trenches after the Battle of Malabon, captioned "A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition". The archive tags card stacking, since the image is selected and captioned to place responsibility for the dead on one man rather than on the war itself, and name-calling for the loaded word "ambition" attached to the opposing commander.
Propaganda techniques used in this photograph
- Date
- 1899
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Underwood & Underwood (Strohmeyer & Wyman, publishers)
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Photograph
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Mckinley Administration
- Leader
- William Mckinley
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Empire and colonialism, Media and information
- Event
- Philippine American War
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved September 27, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published in the U.S. in 1899; LOC: no known restrictions on publication)
Underwood & Underwood (Strohmeyer & Wyman, publishers), "A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition - Behind the Filipino Trenches after the Battle of Malabon, P.I.", stereograph, 1899; LC-DIG-stereo-1s48247
Text on the object
Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked
Strohmeyer & Wyman, Publishers, New York, N.Y. Sold only by Underwood & Underwood, New York, London, Toronto Canada, Ottawa Kansas. A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition—Behind the Filipino Trenches after the Battle of Malabon, P. I. Copyright 1899 by Underwood & Underwood.
The card is a stereograph (two near-identical side-by-side photographs); the printed publisher/distributor lines run in cursive type along the left and right card margins, and the descriptive caption runs along the bottom, all transcribed once rather than duplicated per panel.
