Nov 21 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2687 -

Sale 2687 - Lot 186

Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(NEW YORK.) Album kept by a Civilian Conservation Corps worker in western New York. 139 photographs, most well-captioned, on 49 album leaves. Oblong 4to, 7 x 11 inches, original string-bound cloth boards, minimal wear; just a few photos detached. Various places, bulk 1935-1937

Additional Details

The album was compiled by Howard A. Wolbert (1915-1946), and includes several images of him. He was a Buffalo factory worker when the economy was running properly. From October 1945 to March 1936, he was employed in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program which provided work to the unemployed in conjunction with the WPA. His work crew spent time in Lisle, Whitney Point, and Binghamton (all in Broome County), and at Chautauqua Lake near the state's western tip. The crew is shown chopping trees with axes, loading wheelbarrows, and clearing brush, in addition to many posed portraits of crew members. Many have Polish surnames; one is captioned "Jew Boy Cohn." Several leisure images show the camp baseball team in action, with many of the players named with their positions; Wolbert was the catcher. A few family photos are interspersed, some dating back to 1929, but the great bulk of images are from Wolbert's CCC work.