About this Item
Thick oblong 4to. 12 x 9 x 4.5 in. 282 silver gelatin photographs, w/ over 80% backed in white or gray linen, most w/ typed or stamped captions on versos identifying product, about 30% marked by company as "Master Book Print" w/ rubber stamp, nearly all stamped w/ Jaeger Machine Co. stamp, a few w/ Lakewood Machine Co. Stamp, some typescript captions, majority either ink, or pencil manuscript on versos, some typescript captions w/in negatives, arranged in reverse chronological order. Contemporary De Luxe Systems Peerless Toplock Sectional Post Binder, Style 4, olive-green cloth, nickel-plated piano hinges partially covered, slide-lock & post system, neatly written in drafter's hand ms title on front cover, burgundy-coloured calf corners (dustsoiling, edgewear, rubbing, rubbing to corners, soot & dustsoiling to thick photo block, fore-edges w/ some scuffing, edgewear, occasional minor closed tears, a couple loose, a few misbound in reverse, or upside down, about 30% of the photos with identifying stamps on images), still a VG original exemplar. This stupendous factory photo album offers an essential photographic record of the vital role of road building emerging from the Good Roads Movement during the opening decades of the 20th century, into the New Deal projects driven by the Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression, and aspirations of creating and improving a massive Interstate Highway system. At the end of the 19th century, less than 50% of roads within American cities had been paved, and the very few highways and turnpikes connecting cities and towns were little more than crushed rock, macadam, dirt roads, or even paths. By the early 1930's, there were many highways, but most were in rudimentary condition, forced through bottlenecks in every town along the route, and all required significant upgrade to strengthen the cement and asphalt, add rebar within the underlying roadbeds, and special demand for the finisher machines produced by the Jaeger Machine Co. in Columbus, and subsidiary Lakewood Machine Co. in Cleveland. Jaeger Machine Co. was originally founded in 1906 by Gehard Jaeger (1874-1959), and specialized in cement mixers, roadbuilding equipment, and later specialized concrete and cement finisher equipment for roads and airports. The 282 in-house photographs document not only the variety of cement finishers and road forms developed by Jaeger and Jaeger-Lakewood during the 1930's into World War II, but also capture street scenes, road crews, along with the growing demands in the West, especially California. Projects such as road paving for the Bay Bridge project between San Francisco and Oakland, CA by the Bates & Rogers Construction Co., of Chicago, IL, depict them working with Type D Jaeger-Lakewood Finishers, the Type D Vibratory Machine, and others laying and finishing the road deck from 1935-1937; several photos of the Type D Finisher used by the Pacific Bridge Co. on the Golden Gate Bridge road deck job from 1935-1937, featuring for both photos of the equipment, as well as operating on the bridges. Also included are photos of Jaeger Finisher's laying foundations of the Metropolitan Acqueduct Conduit in the desert East of Los Angeles, CA in Mecca, Riverside County, operated by the Thompson-Starrett Co. firm. In addition, there are photos of finishing the bottom concrete conduit for the aqueduct near San Jacinto, CA by the Griffith Co. of Los Angeles in 1935. Road construction photos of the Type D, Type C, and later Type H finishers include those in Fort Knox, KY near the Battalion Barracks in 1934; street scenes in and around Columbus, OH showing roadbuilding, and homes and street scenes in the background 1934-1935; road construction near Portland, OR in Feb., 1935; F.P. McElwarath contracting building roads through Rockdale, TX in 1934; as well as R.G. Curtis working with Type D Finisher for highway 10 miles east of Long Angles in 1936, along with photos of a Type D Finisher building roads through M.
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