MASSIVE WORLD WAR I PHOTO ALBUM KEPT by an AMERICAN SOLDIER de Fred E. Elder

Large, black photo album which measures: 15 1/4" x 11 1/4", 3" thick, with 80 leaves/160 pages. Numerated on the top right corner of the right-hand pages (up to 76). Photos vary in size. A proud American, Fred. E. Elder from Coshocton, Ohio, volunteered with the allied forces against a common enemy. His training began at Camp Sheridan, Montgomery, Alabama, and his service took him to Belgium, Italy, France, and back home to America. He wore the uniform for two years and eight days.

Throughout these pages are poetry, postcards, photographs, commands from headquarters, praise from General Pershing, encouragement from President Wilson, copies of intercepted communications, summaries of intelligence (enemy artillery, traps and mines, rumors of peace, etc.).

This album is an extensive documentation of an American soldier's experience on the front lines of the 37th Division. There are over 300 photographs which show men in uniform, equipment, an observation blimp, a submarine, guns, gas attacks, cavalry in the mountains, crossing streams, in the trenches, roads lined with tanks, artillery lines, dead bodies, skulls and bones, debris, and desolate war-torn fields. Every page contains chalked captions.

Approximately 285 postcards are glued down the album pages. Most of the postcards are of scenes of Paris. Accompanying the postcards - written beside in chalk - are stories of places such as: "First regular bed and sleep in years", "Poor Pressler promised to marry the waitress",
"Many A.W.O.L. in Paris", "1306 victims of the war of terror were beheaded and dumped into one hole" at Cimetiere de Picpus, "Where the Treaty of Peace was signed" at Versailles.

Other materials herein: a medical sash, maps, pay records, subway tickets, Y.M.C.A. pamphlets, newspaper photos and clippings, copies of secret operations, and messages from headquarters, including: A letter of praise from General Pershing after the retreat of enemy troops in Meuse-Argonne, dated Dec. 19, 1918, reads: "...[Y]ou will be long remembered for the stubborn persistence of your progress, your storming of obstinately defended machine gun nests, your penetration, yard by yard, of woods and ravines, your heroic resistance in the face of counter-attacks supported by powerful artillery fire. For more than a month, from the initial attack of September 26th, you fought your way slowly through the Argonne, through the woods and over hills west of the Meuse; you slowly enlarged your hold on the Cotes de Meuse south of Sedan, and then stormed the heights on the right bank and drover him into the plain beyond.

Your achievement, which is scarcely to be equalled in American history, must remain a source cos proud satisfaction to the troops who participated in the last campaign of the war. The American people will remember it as the realization of the hitherto potential strength of the American contribution toward the cause to which they had sworn allegiance. There can be no greater reward for a soldier or for a soldier's memory"... In regards to his earlier "the greatest and finest battler in history"

Several pages are detached, the front cover is taped on, and the page edges are brittle. The items are glued to the page and the massive album is complete and fully annotated. A wonderful first-hand documentation of WWI.