MS0951_0208_001

A rare photo of soldiers on Gay Street during the Spanish-American War. During that short con􀁄lict in 1898, Knoxville hosted training bases for recruits from all over the nation. Several of them died of a typhoid outbreak, and are buried at National Cemetery. Others were killed in combat, from Cuba to the Philippines, and were returned here for burial. In this photo, the most prominent building in the background is the Imperial Hotel, which burned down in 1916--to be replaced by the Farragut, an homage to a Knox County native who became the U.S. Navy's first admiral. “Photographs of Tennessee Cities Collection, MS.0951. University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville, Special Collections.”