Friends:
I'll follow with pictures later this week, but I wonder if anyone has found photos, specifications, or drawings of the Whitman bridles actually used in cavalry service? To me it has been one of the big mysteries. Many sources discuss the development of the Whitman equipment and show both arsenal and civilian-made Whitman saddles. Not even all of that seems accurate. For example, it is usually said that Mehlbach bought Whitman out in the 1880s and soon after manufactured under the name of Mehlbach saddle company, still calling the Whitman a Whitman. However, I own a very elegant Whitman with a Whitman Saddle Company maker's plate on it, and patent dates from the late 1890s. This same saddle has a wonderful pair of the Whitman German silver officer's stirrups, marked 1908, which is contemporaneous with the saddle (according to the patent dates).
As to bridles, no one I know of has ever really gotten to the bottom of the issue. I own two. One is clearly civilian, and is NOT a halter bridle. The other appears to be military and IS a halter bridle and is unit marked. It came from the horde of the late Tom Smith, who knew his stuff better than most people, and was pretty certain it was the real deal. However, Tom and I talked it over and did some research and could not between us be dead certain that it had not been a police bridle. This was because we could not find clear images. Of course, police and military bridles might have been identical.
The Whitman bit is pretty well known and easy to spot, although the one I have does not quite fit the bridle.
Perplexing, no? Can anybody shed light?
Whitman Saddles and Bridles
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Pat Holscher
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Other than private purchase for officers, right?Joseph Sullivan wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2019 3:01 pm Friends:
I'll follow with pictures later this week, but I wonder if anyone has found photos, specifications, or drawings of the Whitman bridles actually used in cavalry service?
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Joseph Sullivan
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- Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2000 8:35 pm
- Last Name: Sullivan
I think that's the thing, Pat. At this point, I am not sure how many, of even WHETHER any Whitman bridles were actually issued as opposed to being purchased. It was, after all, an officers' item of gear and at the time, all officer's gear was privately purchased. However, we do know that RIA made some quantity of Whitman pattern, and also hybrid Whitman/Macs. I have seen reference on various places to specifications for Whitman bridles. However, I've never seen the specs. Almost everybody uses one very unclear image of a horse head in a bridle to illustrate.
We sometimes see Whitman pattern bits with the spring clip attachments that are said to have been adopted by the Cav. I have one here in my office. I also have a Whitman halter bridle that Tom Smith and I both thought had a high probability of being the real deal. However, my Whitman bit does not fit my bridle. I have another Whitman bridle that does NOT use the spring clip bit. However, it is not a halter bridle either, so I think it is purely civilian unless some officer just wanted that pattern (nothing on it suggests a military connection).
So, I guess at this point there are two courses of action to research this. The first would be to go back to Ft. Lee and poke around their archives to see it Whitman bridle specs could be found. I am extraordinarily unlikely to have that opportunity again. the other would be to solicit photos of any cavalry horse who appears to be fitted in a Whitman saddle and see if the bridle can be made out. A comparison of bridles might lead towards the truth.
You know, there were more kinds of bridles than we know. Years ago when I actually was going through files at Ft. Lee, I found plans for a combination bridle that I have never seen. At the time I was quite familiar with the '02, the experimental '06, the '09, the '12. If memory serves (and this was years ago so I do not warrant accuracy), the plans were for a Model of 1917. I had then never seen or heard of such an item, and that is almost true today. At the time I called a couple of the other guys over, Ottevaere was one, along with possibly Couvi and Philip. Ott said it was new to him and nobody else knew about it either.
However, when Dorsey and McPheeters came out with their book, they included a photograph on P. 402 of what they were calling the rigging for the M1909. They were using the i,age to make a point about complexity -- not to identify the '09. It was not an '09, not a '12, and it was not the artillery riding bridle of 1913 which I owned for many years and know well. Rather, it was the bridle from the plans at Ft. Lee. So at least one of them was made up as a prototype, and who knows how many more? A couple of years ago I asked Ken McPheeters about that picture. He didn't know where it had come from and was unfamiliar with the bridle.
Cavalry bridles are a poorly researched world, and because of the perishable nature of light strapwork, they tend to disappear leaving us only with the steel and brass bits and rosettes.
We sometimes see Whitman pattern bits with the spring clip attachments that are said to have been adopted by the Cav. I have one here in my office. I also have a Whitman halter bridle that Tom Smith and I both thought had a high probability of being the real deal. However, my Whitman bit does not fit my bridle. I have another Whitman bridle that does NOT use the spring clip bit. However, it is not a halter bridle either, so I think it is purely civilian unless some officer just wanted that pattern (nothing on it suggests a military connection).
So, I guess at this point there are two courses of action to research this. The first would be to go back to Ft. Lee and poke around their archives to see it Whitman bridle specs could be found. I am extraordinarily unlikely to have that opportunity again. the other would be to solicit photos of any cavalry horse who appears to be fitted in a Whitman saddle and see if the bridle can be made out. A comparison of bridles might lead towards the truth.
You know, there were more kinds of bridles than we know. Years ago when I actually was going through files at Ft. Lee, I found plans for a combination bridle that I have never seen. At the time I was quite familiar with the '02, the experimental '06, the '09, the '12. If memory serves (and this was years ago so I do not warrant accuracy), the plans were for a Model of 1917. I had then never seen or heard of such an item, and that is almost true today. At the time I called a couple of the other guys over, Ottevaere was one, along with possibly Couvi and Philip. Ott said it was new to him and nobody else knew about it either.
However, when Dorsey and McPheeters came out with their book, they included a photograph on P. 402 of what they were calling the rigging for the M1909. They were using the i,age to make a point about complexity -- not to identify the '09. It was not an '09, not a '12, and it was not the artillery riding bridle of 1913 which I owned for many years and know well. Rather, it was the bridle from the plans at Ft. Lee. So at least one of them was made up as a prototype, and who knows how many more? A couple of years ago I asked Ken McPheeters about that picture. He didn't know where it had come from and was unfamiliar with the bridle.
Cavalry bridles are a poorly researched world, and because of the perishable nature of light strapwork, they tend to disappear leaving us only with the steel and brass bits and rosettes.