Between the Covers

Softcover. Small quarto. Plasticized white paper over flexible boards. 111 black and white photographs. Most are about 2.5" x 3.5", a few larger. Slight soiling to the boards, images are mostly fine, many with ink signatures, but for the most part not obscuring the images. Dated from the inscriptions (in Thai). Each photograph is a portrait of a young girl or group of young girls, apparently prepared as a friendship album for one of the students. After the handwritten title page ("Happiness is Together with All Friends") is a drawing of an orchid, and the single word "Farewell," perhaps this was prepared as a going away album for the lone western (possibly American) girl pictured in the album. The girls, in school uniforms, miniskirts, bathing suits, and other typical late 1960s fashion, are almost all are in Western style clothing. The students are depicted engaging in a variety of activities, playing basketball, baseball, posing with a Jaguar XKE, with pets, with a guitar, on the beach, with a bicycle taxi, etc. Also laid in is a New Year's card, most of the text handwritten in Thai. A nice period vernacular album of adolescent girls engaged in a wide range of activities. The Thai inscriptions in the album indicates that this album depicts girls from the Queen's School. Queen Saovabha Phongsri took a particular interest in the education of women, and in 1904 established the first school for girls in Siam; the "Rajini School" or Queen's School in Bangkok.

Item #388615