1926 US Puerto Rico Passport: Mario Brau’s Story

The 1926 Passport That Still Called Puerto Rico an “Island”

A 1926 United States passport issued in San Juan carries a designation you won’t find on an ordinary American travel document of the era: “Island of Puerto Rico.” I’ve handled plenty of US passports from the 1920s, but this territorial framing, stamped onto a document for a man named Mario Brau, is what makes this one worth a closer look.

Who Was Mario Brau, and Why Does His Passport Matter?

This passport was issued in 1926 to Mario Brau, the brother of Puerto Rico’s official historian, Salvador Brau. That family connection alone gives the document some weight. Salvador Brau spent his career shaping how Puerto Rico’s history was written and taught, so a passport tied to his own brother carries a bit of that reflected historical gravity, even though it was Mario, not Salvador, who actually held it and used it to travel.

The document itself has a few features that set it apart from a routine 1920s American passport. It’s a large folio format, and it’s survived in excellent condition apart from the wear you’d expect from a century-old paper document. It includes a visa for Venezuela, complete with a revenue stamp, which tells us Brau made at least one documented trip south. And unusually for a passport of this period, it features a full-body photograph of Brau rather than the head-and-shoulders portrait that was becoming standard. I don’t come across full-body passport photos often, and when I do, they’re always worth flagging.

The passport was signed by Acting Governor Bulle and, more notably, by the sitting Governor of Puerto Rico himself, Horace Mann Towner, who went on to renew it in 1927 for validity through 1928.

Who Was Governor Horace Mann Towner?

Horace Mann Towner (October 23, 1855 to November 23, 1937) was the appointed Governor of Puerto Rico whose signature appears on this very document. Before his appointment, Towner served six terms as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa’s 8th congressional district. During that congressional career, he chaired the United States House Committee on Insular Affairs for four years, the committee responsible for federal oversight of America’s protectorates and territories, which put him squarely in charge of the kind of policy that would later define his own governorship.

In early 1923, President Warren G. Harding appointed Towner Governor of Puerto Rico, a post he held until September 29, 1929, which places this passport squarely in the middle of his tenure. Towner’s time as governor was defined by public works: aqueduct systems across the island, the irrigation network in Isabela, the School of Tropical Medicine building in Puerta de Tierra, and a new penitentiary. He also introduced a retirement law for public employees and a new tax law, at a time when the federal government’s role in health and education was still relatively small; Towner was ahead of the curve in expanding it.

After leaving office, Towner returned to practicing law in Corning until his death on November 23, 1937. He’s interred in Walnut Grove Cemetery, and Horace Mann Towner Primary School in Comerío, Puerto Rico still carries his name today.

Why Does This Passport Say “Island of Puerto Rico” at All?

This passport reflects Puerto Rico’s status as a US territory acquired through the Treaty of Paris after the Spanish-American War. Puerto Rico became a colonial possession of the United States in 1898, and by the time this document was issued nearly three decades later, that territorial relationship was still being spelled out on the passports themselves. That’s really the heart of why this document is worth collecting: it’s a small paper artifact of a much larger, still-unresolved conversation about Puerto Rico’s political relationship with the mainland, one that a 1920s traveler carried in his pocket without necessarily thinking twice about it.

If you’re researching US territorial passports or Puerto Rico’s documentary history more broadly, I’d love to hear from you. Follow along on Instagram @passporthistory for more finds like this one.

 

Tom Topol | Passport Historian & Author
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