World War I mystery photos: Soldiers present but not accounted for

Earlier this year, a Grandview man brought four antique oval portraits to Jonathan Casey.

All four photographs showed African-American soldiers during World War I.

One portrait included a woman. In the image she wears a ring, as does her uniformed companion. Were they married?

“We don’t know,” said Casey, archivist at the National World War I Museum and Memorial. “We have no names. We have no knowledge of them.”

But maybe, Casey said, there’s somebody in Kansas City who does.

As the 2017 centennial of America’s involvement in World War I approaches, the urgency increases for Casey and his colleagues to make that big story personal and accessible. On Saturday, Casey will take that photo and others to the Black Archives of Mid-America, where he hopes — in an admitted long shot — someone can identify the people photographed.

Casey also hopes that day to examine heirloom images owned by Kansas City area residents wanting to document the World War I contributions of their family members or friends.

“We want to engage the community and promote a public understanding of history,” said Glenn North, Black Archives programs and education director. “That history is not just something for academics and researchers.”

Yet history can be frustrating, given the mystery the four oval portraits present.

“The donor had picked up these portraits over the years in antique stores and flea markets,” said Casey, who also manages the museum’s Edward Jones Research Center.

“He didn’t know anything about them.”

Still, the photos offer clues.

The portraits are domed, or convex, and are hand-tinted in the fashion of that time.

Three bear small scars from the frames once attached to them. They are formal images of clear importance to those depicted.

And though the images contain no information about who is depicted, the pride and devotion of those photographed about a century ago remain intact.

“We need to get a broader audience to look at these photographs,” said Sidney Malone, commander of American Legion Wayne Miner Post 149, who helped organize the Saturday event.

“Maybe there are other photographs out there that need to be seen and talked about.”

More than 90 percent of the World War I Museum’s collection, built up over decades, arrived as donations.

Of the approximately 4.7 million Americans who served in World War I, about 370,000 were African-American.

Accordingly, materials documenting black participation can be more challenging to find.

“African-American materials is one of our top priorities, along with artifacts concerning women in any service branch,” Casey said.

The Saturday event could help residents better understand the war and the role of African-American participation in it, Casey said.

“And maybe they have materials in their own families that they may want to bring to light,” he said.

The organizers of Saturday’s event have a second goal.

They seek to find family members of Wayne Miner, for whom Post 149 is named. Miner, an African-American Kansas City resident, was the last American soldier killed in World War I, three hours before the armistice was signed on Nov. 11, 1918.

Post members are advocating for Miner, then a U.S. Army private, to officially receive decorations from the Army and the government of France, as well as be posthumously promoted to sergeant. But they need to find a relative of Miner for that to happen.

“We are at a stalemate,” said Charles Conner, Post 149 adjutant.

“He was very young when he died, so it makes the task that much harder.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 7:13 PM with the headline "World War I mystery photos: Soldiers present but not accounted for."