Between the Covers

Hardcover. Oblong quarto. Measuring 12" x 8". String-tied gray cloth over paper boards. Contains 220 sepia toned or black and white gelatin silver photographs measuring between 1.5" x 2" and 5" x 7", some with captions in French. The album is near fine with some edgewear with near fine or better photographs.

A photo album kept by a Belgian girl from 1932 to 1938 featuring seaside vacations, girlish goofing around, and even trips to visit soldiers later in the album. The collection is full of splendid snapshots of girls enjoying the company of their friends posing, acting silly, and visiting family. The seaside photos show the girls in their bathing suits, dancing with boys, and sunbathing on the Belgian coast. There are photos of the women posing by Barrage de la Gileppe, a gravity dam that established the standard for modern European dam systems. They also went to the Cambre Abbey in Brussels, stopping on the grounds of the abbey to give each other rabbit ears, and the coastal town of Ostende, where they took numerous photos, a few in bathing suits suggest a pinup girl style. In 1936 they visited the barracks of Chartreuse de Liège which had recently been decommissioned and turned into a "simple barracks" and would eventually serve as a military hospital towards the end of World War II. Here we see the women of the album posing with soldiers as well as group photos of the troops in full uniform. One photo shows a small group of soldiers with one of them playing an accordion.

An interesting collection of images of carefree young women in Belgium before the devastation caused by the events of World War II.

Item #400331