Between the Covers

Hardcover. Quarto measuring 12" x 12.5". String-tied cream leather over paper boards with "scrapbook" stamped on the front board. Contains 182 sepia toned or black and white gelatin silver photographs measuring between 1" x 1" and 5" x 7" with captions. Good only album with detached pages, chips, tears, and rubbing with fine photographs.

A scrapbook kept by Grace Reed mostly between 1942 and 1947 with some laid in photos from 1963. The album begins with Grace’s marriage to her husband, Cameron, and the beginning of their life together in Milwaukee. Grace illustrated many of the pages with colorful small images detailing the action in the photos as well as neatly captioning the scenes in colorful script. The Reeds were also avid amateur photographers and their work is seen throughout the album. Early photos show the city of Milwaukee including a nicely composed image of “downtown Milwaukee” and the public parks of the city. From there Grace details their engagement, honeymoon, and early days of marriage with cute captions and posed photos. One group of photos has the couple in three different shots with the first showing Cameron posed behind a seated Grace captioned “this is good,” then Grace on his lap, “this is better,” then the couple kissing, “this is best.” The couple also enjoyed outings to the Roller Skating Follies of 1942 and a boxing match in 1943.

During the war years the couple worked at the Allis-Chalmers Supercharger Plant, the initial page in the scrapbook is illustrated by a plane drawn in green by Grace. Cameron was part of the architecture team who created the plant. One series of photos shows “the evolution of the plant” in various stages, another page entitled “the brains” and shows Cameron and his colleagues at a drafting table. Other photos of the plant show the switch room, men working, and the substation. She documented a winter together with images of frozen ponds, snow covered trees, and an “impromptu” kiss under a streetlight.

One section is titled “A Day in the Life of the Reeds” which shows cute photos of the couple from 6:30 am with Cameron playfully pulling his wife out of bed, them kissing over a cup of coffee, working at the factory, having dinner, cuddling on the couch, and finally saying their prayers. The couple was involved in local radio and stage productions and are photographed here. Other photos show the couple during Halloween, on a road trip through Wisconsin, and celebrating Christmas. In the winter of 1943 the couple announced they were expecting a baby and the photos here show Cameron reading a book about parenting and Grace knitting and a photo of the new baby, Walter, is seen on a following page. The album ends with vacation photos and holiday parties.

A wonderful collection of photographs detailing a couple’s life during World War II through a well-captioned scrapbook.

Item #415101