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New York, Cape Cod, Maine, Montana, Virginia: 1917–1927. Sm 4to (11.875” x 9.375”) pebbled green cloth with decorative gilt border at upper cover and spine. 447 photographs between 1.5” x 2.375” and 9.875” x 7.375”. 4 photos missing. Bookplate of Jane Erskine Williams in upper left corner of front paste-down. CONDITION: Very good, some very light wear to extremities; photos very good with rich tonality.

A delightfully vivid vernacular photo album depicting ten years of summer camps, college, vacations, and outings—in Maine, Cape Cod, Montana, and elsewhere—of a girl and her family from White Plains, New York. The album also includes a number of striking photos relating to aerial photography and naval aviation in 1926 and 1927.

Assembled by Jane Erskine Williams (1908–2005), this album records Williams’s experiences at camp, at home, on vacation, and later at Hollins College in Virginia, between the ages of nine and nineteen (although the evenness and consistency of the ink captions suggests that it was compiled somewhat later). After several photos documenting visits to “Buckannan” Virginia and Lake George, New York in 1917 and 1919, respectively, many of the subsequent pages are dedicated to Williams’s summer activities, primarily at Camp Pukwana on Sebago Lake in Maine. These images show happy campers in uniform as they cook, swim, canoe, weave baskets, ride horses, and go on excursions to Portland or Mount Washington. The campers’ theatrical productions were evidently a summer highlight for Williams, and many photos document girls performing or posing in costume, dancing, etc. A number of photos record a 1926 family vacation to Montana, which included a parade in Bozeman where they saw a cowboy, a cowgirl, and a trick roper, as well as a rodeo, at which an “Indian War Dance” was performed. The family also stayed at Elkhorn Ranch, as documented with images of horseback excursions and vast western vistas. Photos of Williams’s family and family friends—as well as her cat Fluffy—appear throughout the album.

Of particular interest is the album’s aerial photography and aviation content: John Noble, connected to Williams through her sister’s marriage to his brother Gilbert (and possibly a love interest, as imagined by at least one staff member here), was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Navy, and one large and striking photo, mounted opposite an aerial view evidently taken by him of the “United States Naval Reserve Air Station” in Squantum, Massachusetts, shows him holding his jumbo “aviation camera.” In addition to several snapshots of other naval officers, the album includes photos of “John Noble in an Aeroplane,” naval planes on the ground and in flight, naval bases in both Squantum and Newport News, Virginia, an aircraft carrier off the coast of Newport News, and aerial shots of Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Naval Base at Newport News.

Also documented is a “Trip to Hollins College VA” as well as visits to Washington D.C., Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Lexington, and Staunton. By 1927 Williams was attending Hollins and included here are shots of significant buildings on campus and events and leisure time with her sorority, Gamma Phi Beta. Williams graduated with a Bachelor’s of Music in 1930—three years after the close of this album—with a focus on violin. During the time Williams attended, Hollins was attempting to gain accreditation, which it did in 1932. It has since become known for its writing programs, among its many noted graduates are Annie Dillard (Pulitzer Prize, 1975), Natasha Trethewey ( Pulitzer Prize, 2007, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2012–2014), and Kiran Desai (Man Booker Prize, 2006) and the author of Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown. 

A rich and engaging vernacular photo album documenting a girl’s life in the early part of the twentieth century.

REFERENCES: The Spinster (Roanoke, VA: Hollins College, 1930); “Jane Erskine Williams,” FamilySearch online.

Item #8050

Price: $975.00