Between the Covers

Hardcover. Small quarto. Measuring 8" x 8". Brown paper photo album. Contains 44 gelatin silver photographs measuring between 1" x 1" and 4" x 5", some with captions on the verso. Good only album with a mostly detached front board, worn edges, and spotting and very good photographs with some fading and creasing.

A photo album kept by an African-American naval seaman during World War II. The album itself is made from unused photo paper sheets with brown stiff paper boards. The album covers are filled with handwritten names and addresses of enlisted men who the compiler befriended during his tour of duty. Additionally tipped on to the front board pastedown is a slip of paper with more addresses. The images are not in any chronological order and are a collage of the seaman’s time overseas mostly in Japan. Throughout the album are photos of women, mostly Asian and African-American, many of whom are in suggestive poses and some topless. One of these photos shows a topless woman in a grass skirt doing a hula dance on a beach. Also included are scenes of the local people they met including Japanese women working in the fields and children playing on a dirt road as well as photos of landscapes and fellow enlisted men. The album also features numerous pages full of currency from the various countries the compiler sailed to. A few of the images show causalities of war, including close ups of bodies and makeshift cemeteries.

An interesting collection of World War II photographs taken by an African-American seaman around the end of the war.

Item #424419