The images were all taken in the year 1911 by the American Luther Parker, who first came to the Philippines in 1901 and stayed in the Philippines until 1931. He worked in the Bureau of Education and rose to the position of Superintendent. He retired in 1926.
He travelled extensively around the Philippines and amassed an amazing collection of pictures of peoples and places he visited. These pictures have been preserved in digital form and are publicly available at the National Library of the Philippines’ online presence.
For some curious reason, although he took numerous pictures to depict the culture of the country in his visits to many places, those he took in Batangas were mostly limited to religious edifices. In this collection, for instance, all pictures fall under the religious edifice category except for one street scene in Lipa and a picture of houses in Lemery destroyed by an earthquake preceding the 1911 eruption of Taal Volcano.
Note that the captions under the pictures in this post are as Parker himself wrote; and that he spelled Taysan as Taisan and Tanauan as Tanauan.
The pictures he took of Taal are in a separate article and may be seen here.
Balayan
 |
| View of Church at Balayan. The old capital of Batangas. |
 |
| View of church at Balayan, Batangas. |
Batangas Town
 |
| Church. Batangas, Batangas Province. |
Bauan
 |
| View of church at Bauan, Batangas. |
 |
| Side view of Church at Bauan, Batangas. |
 |
| View in Bauan, Batangas showing church tower. |
Ibaan
 |
| Partial view of the Ibaan Church and convent, Ibaan, Batangas. |
 |
| Convent at Ibaan. |
 |
| Facade of Ibaan church. Ibaan, Batangas. |
Lemery
 |
| View of church at Lemery, Batangas. |
 |
| View of house in Lemery, Batangas damaged by earthquakes preceding the eruption of Taal Volcano in 1911. |
Lipa
 |
| Church at Lipa, Batangas. |
 |
| View of Church at Lipa, Batangas. |
 |
| Street scene in Lipa, Batangas, the rich coffee town of former days. |
San Jose
 |
| Church at San Jose, Batangas. |
San Juan
 |
| View of Church at San Juan de Bocboc. |
Tanauan
 |
| Church at Tanawan, Batangas. |
 |
| Church at Tanawan, Batangas. |
 |
| Convent at Tanawan, Batangas. |
Taysan
 |
| View of Church at Taisan, Batangas. |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
🙏 Kindly consider sharing this article on your social media accounts to keep this sight free for students and lovers of Batangas History.
If you wish to make a donation to Batangas History, click on the Donate button below:
