[Photo Album]: Choate School and World War II

Oblong small quarto measuring 11" x 7". String-tied blue cloth over stiff paper boards with "photographs" stamped in gilt on the front boards. Contains 136 sepia-toned or black and white gelatin silver photographs measuring between 2" x 2" and 5" x 7" with captions. Very good album with rubbing and edgewear with near fine photographs. A photo album kept by a young man in who attended Choate institute and late served with the Air Force during World War II. The early photographs shows scenes from Choate with images of boys playing cards in a dorm room, sporting events, and the campus. Some of the photos are from a visit to the 1939 World’s Fair in New York with images of various displays at the event. Another group of photos shows a family trip to Washington, D.C. with images of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier," the FBI building, and other landmarks. Towards the end of the album he includes information from his service during World War II. He was part of an Air Force crew that crashed in Cuba and he was the lone survivor. This section starts with a handwritten caption which reads, "Cuba B29 Crash Feb. 10, 1945. At 4:05 am we took off at 4:07 am seven of us died at 4:37 am I was operated on. The following U.S. Army Air Force pictures show the remains of our plane. The fire was extinguished after only 20 minutes. However not much was left." The photos that follow show the crash and the funeral procession. A year after the crash the compiler returned to the grave sites of his fellow corpsman, listing the rank for each man. The final photograph is a group image from the Air Force Hospital captioned, "V.E. Day at Miami Biltmore Hotel Air Force Hospital." An interesting collection of images documenting a young man’s schooling and later time with the Air Force.…