[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Documenting the Cold War-Era Service of an African-American Soldier in the 26th Infantry]

[Kansas and Germany, 1960. Very good.. Twenty-two leaves, illustrated with 167 photographs, most mounted and captioned in white ink, with a handful of loose images and one cloth nameplate. Some images removed. Oblong folio. Contemporary dark blue leatherette, triple-ruled gilt borders on front cover, string tied. Faint manuscript title on front cover reads, "Book of the Past." Front cover detached, some edge wear. Minor chipping to initial leaves, first two leaves detached, photos in generally nice condition. A unique collection of photographs documenting the military service of Private Eugene Jones, an African American soldier in Company B of the 26th (truncated) Infantry, known as the Blue Spaders for the spade-like device on the unit's insignia. According to the manuscript captions written on the inside front cover (which include his serial number), Private Jones hailed from New York City and was stationed in Baumholder, Germany as part of the 26th Infantry's 1st Battle Group. The 26th Infantry regiment was sent to Berlin and other spots in Germany in the early 1960s as part of the United States' efforts to reinforce West Germany against the Cold War forces in East Germany. Company B was likely some kind of support unit, as Baumholder is located in the far-western portion of Germany, much closer to France than Berlin.

The present photo album contains numerous images of Jones' fellow soldiers, most identified by name in manuscript captions. Other photographs picture the unit during their brief training at Fort Riley in Kansas before deploying to Germany. Once in Baumholder, the soldiers are pictured in the bivouac area, on the streets, playing baseball, with various women, on base and in the barracks, on patrol, unloading Jeeps at the airstrip, and more. One photo shows the exterior of the Baumholder Department Store. Some of the later pages contain earlier photographs showing some of Jones's friends and family from New York; these pages appear to have been ported over from another photo album. The only non-photographic item in the album is Jones's cloth nameplate.

An interesting photographic record of service in an integrated unit in Cold War Germany. (Inventory #: 3443)