?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(WORLD WAR TWO.) Large archive of Signal Corps photographs documenting the last year of the war. Approximately 380 photographs in one box, plus other supplementary material (1.2 linear feet), almost all with Signal Corps insignia and reference numbers in negative, almost all mounted on linen with binding stubs as issued, some with full printed captions, others marked on verso with reference numbers or Signal Corps stamps, many blank on verso; generally just minor to moderate curling and wear, with heavier wear and dampstaining to approximately 50 photographs. Various places, 1941, 1944-1945
These official Army Signal Corps photographs document the final phase of the war in Europe, Asia and the Pacific from about June 1944 through August 1945, with a few slightly later images of demobilized Japan. Approximately 80 are in strong condition and well-captioned with printed Signal Corps labels mounted on verso. Many of the images are not for the squeamish, including executed concentration camp inmates, and numerous shots of dead or wounded soldiers. Many show the ruins of German cities after Allied occupation, including one of Army medics examining a truck flipped over by a Nazi shell in Arnoldsweiler in February 1945 (illustrated). Others show Axis prisoners of war arriving in Boston; French civilians sheltering in a Maginot Line fortress; an American flag being raised at Corregidor Island; infantrymen crouching in a snow-filled trench under German shelling; a shirtless rifle-wielding Filipino guerilla scout; liberated American prisoners marching to a hospital in Luzon; the flattened ruins of Hiroshima in August 1945; and much more. Several shots of the war in Burma include "Kachin tribesmen unaccustomed to automotive transport" out for a ride with a smiling G.I. At least 3 of the images date from the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941.
Also included are about 250 uncaptioned photographs in strong condition. These are accompanied by several packets of unapplied caption labels which have become adhered together; it may be possible to separate these labels and match them up with the original photographs. Google image searching has also proven successful in identifying some of these images. Also included are approximately 50 well-captioned sleeves which originally accompanied 4 x 5-inch prints.
Finally, we include the photo identification badge of the compiler, J.A. Griswold, a civilian with the Signal Corps Photographic Laboratory, which was apparently located on the inactive campus of the Army War College in Washington. His name appears on several packets of photographs. He can also be seen in a group photograph with other staff members, a mix of uniformed and civilian employees.
