Between the Covers

Hardcover. Oblong folio. Measuring 15" x 10.5". String-tied brown cloth over stiff paper boards with "Photographs" stamped in gilt on the front board. Contains 77 sepia-toned or black and white silver gelatin photographs measuring between 2" x 3" and 8" x 10" with captions. Very good album with some detached but present pages, chips, and tears with near fine photographs.

A photo album kept by Bert Mallory of Toledo, Ohio beginning in 1915. Mallory was involved in sports in his high school and later with the city, primarily playing baseball and basketball. The first page of the album shows portrait photos of the baseball team he was on captioned with the names of the players and the positions they played; Mallory played first base. The album follows his activities in high school including participating in student council and “The L.O.K.” magazine. Mallory also includes portrait photographs of his classmates with their names captioned below. Many of these photos show well-dressed young men and women in the height of the day's fashions. One section of photos shows Mallory in a tuxedo in various poses dated in 1917. Later photos from the 1920s show Mallory posed with a basketball while playing with the Red Men Tobaccos team. Like many early 20th Century standout athletes, Bert Mallory apparently played multiple sports before landing a spot on this professional basketball team. The Red Men Tobaccos were members of both the National Basketball League and the American Basketball League and were Champions of 1929-30 season. Another sports related image shows Suey Welsh posed with friends in front of the Miller Rubber Co. 1920 in Akron, Ohio; Welsh would later become boxing manager of middleweight boxing champ, William Landon "Gorilla" Jones. The album ends with photos from the 1940s of Mallory’s mother with a small newspaper clipping of her obituary pasted beneath the portraits.

An interesting collection of Ohio Sports photos following the career of a local man from high school through his time with a professional basketball team.-.

Item #421480