(WORLD WAR ONE.) Norman Pennicuik album with illustrations. 101 photographs, most about 2 x 3 inches, mounted on 46 well-captioned scrapbook leaves with occasional illustrations, some laid down and others inserted into corner mounts, plus 13 Signal Corps photographs laid in, 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, captioned in pencil on verso. Oblong 4to, 7 x 11 inches, original limp cloth, minor wear; minimal wear to contents; inscribed by the compiler on the title page. Various places, July to December 1918 and undated
This album was compiled by a corporal in the 146th Field Artillery of the 66th Brigade in the American Expeditionary Force. The brigade was recruited in the Western states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, and was one of the first American artillery units in France, serving in many of the principal engagements of the war.
These photographs include candid shots of the brigade's soldiers, local scenery including war-ravaged buildings, and the occasional dead "boche" (German soldier). Many of the scenes are from Marne and other locations on the front, with just 6 near the end showing training camps in the United States. The captioning is better than usual. Examples include "The first of the regiment: Graves of Pvts. Huff & Rude, killed by breech-block, due to premature explosion of shell in gun"; "Capt. Prell at old Roman baths, Martres à Veyres"; and "Baseball at Veyres-Gironde." On a few pages, the compiler has embellished the black scrapbook leaves with small well-executed drawings in white ink. A section of 8 pictures "taken from fallen Boche aviator" includes a well-known image of the body of ex-President Roosevelt's son Quentin at a crash site. A pair of before-and-after shots of a ruined building is captioned "we had a kitchen here . . . For a few minutes!" A shot of several bodies stacked in a crude cart is captioned "German wounded left behind. Bottom man alive--Argonne. Some ambulance!" The larger Signal Corps photographs laid in at rear are also from the 66th Brigade, including two of General John J. Pershing and Secretary of War Newton Baker touring their camp in Bordeaux.
The compiler, Norman Pennicuik (1891-1980), was born to Scottish parents and came to the United States in 1907. He was a resident of Orange, NJ upon enlistment; after the war he lived in Oregon and Westchester County, NY, working as an accountant.
