Between the Covers

Hardcover. Oblong folio. Measuring 15" x 11.5". String-tied cloth over paper boards with stamped decorations and "Photographs" stamped on the front board. Contains 82 black and white or sepia toned gelatin silver photographs measuring between 2.75" x 4.5" and 4.5" x 6", with captions. Very good album with some age-toning and edgewear with near fine photographs.

A photo album kept by three men, Charles A. Zeiler, Henry P. Pollinger, and August Lipanovich, who referred to themselves as “the three mosquitos,” while traveling in New England in 1940. The album appears to have been compiled as a school assignment and is titled “Why Visit the New England States?” The album begins with pictorial postcards of the White Mountains with captions reading “scenic view of New Hampshire” and “sunset on the White Mountains.” The photos and postcards are heavily captioned and detail the trip from beginning to end. One photo reads, “our trip almost ended the first day. We got stuck in the mud. Henry and Charlie pushed Augie out of the soup. The road was in Pennsylvania of course.” They visited all the highlights they could think of between Pennsylvania and Maine including Plymouth Rock, Mount Washington, and “the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.” One photo reads, “Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon had nothing on the Delaware Water Gap also in the Keystone State. This picture was taken from the highway looking up the gap.” They also photographed tourists throughout their travels with one candid photo reading “girl scouts at Plymouth Rock. They refused to let us take their picture so we snapped it when they were not looking. The fact that they had on shorts had nothing to do with our wanting their picture.” The men visit waterfalls, hike up mountains, and visit historic sites with a photo reading, “a waterfall above Buttermilk Falls near Ithaca, New York. We all went over the lower rapids in a barrel.” A photo taken in the White Mountains reads, “the top of the White Mountains was literally full of rocks. In fact the path was marked by rocks formed into a small pile. Here Henry sighs for new worlds to conquer.” One photo of two of the party reads, “the boys look happy on this picture for some reason or other. In the foreground one sees the one and only worm with Sir Malcolm Lipanovich in the rear. Why has Sir Malcolm such a sly grin on the face.” The final page includes business cards and tickets from throughout their trip. The album concludes with a handwritten account of their favorite attractions and a list of “things we should never do” which included such advice as “never shoot off fireworks at Old Orchard Beach, Maine,” “never try to steal Plymouth Rock,” and never run over a skunk with a new car.”

A pleasing and heavily captioned photo album detailing a trip from Pennsylvania to Maine.

Item #410353