[Photo Album] Images of U.S. Army Soldiers in Training at the European Command Engineer School at Murnau, Germany, 1953

Oblong octavo (9" x 6"). Contemporary brad bound album in green Bakelite-like marbled plastic covers with plastic lettering and pictorial designs mounted in relief on the front cover: "Souvenir of Germany, European Command Engineer School, Murnau, Bavaria". Contains 52 gelatin silver prints dating from 1953, measuring between 3" x 3" to 3 ¼" x 4 ½", corner mounted on the rectos and versos of thick black paper leaves interleaved with tissue guards. The tissue guards are moderately toned, two or three are frayed at the edges, a few photos are missing, some are laid-in, very good overall. Contains several spirited snapshots of young American soldiers adjusting to their new quarters the U.S. Army’s Engineer School at Murnau, Germany. Located in the Bavarian Alps not far from Munich, the school provided training in the use of explosives, mines, and booby traps. A laid-in newspaper clipping identifies the album’s owner and compiler as Pvt. Paul E. Sigmon. After graduating in January, 1953, Sigmon entered the Army and was assigned to Battery B, 393rd Field Artillery Battalion, in Germany as cannoneer. An attractive young man’s album, documenting U.S. military operations in Germany during the Cold War. Of especial interest are the unusual and colorful covers of the album, made in an interesting and likely uncommon plastic manufacturing process. We are not experts, but we've never seen another quite like it.