[Photo Album]: Telephone Operator in Nebraska, 1920

Oblong quarto. Cord-tied flexible leather boards. Approximately 370 gelatin silver photographs, a small card, and two newspaper clippings. Photographs are mostly mounted, a handful are laid in. Rubbing on the boards, but sound and very good. Some of the images exhibit some wear to the negatives that has transferred onto the positive images - presumably amateurishly printed - else near fine. Various sizes. Sparsely captioned in white album ink mostly indicating different locations in Nebraska, all dated in 1920. The small clippings are informative - one noting a farewell party for Gertrude Clapper (b. 1887) from Marengo, Iowa, who left for "Omaha where she has accepted a position as operator in the long distance office," the other showing a group picture of the Omaha operators. The small card mounted next to the clipping is signed by the attendees of the party, as enumerated in the clipping. The images are cheerful and pleasant, following Gertrude and her young (30-something?) friends on various outings, with locations noted as Gretna Fish Hatchery, Tikamah, Plattesmouth, Fremont, Nebraska City, Omaha, and a few of Marengo and Fairmount Park, Iowa. There are a few images of "The Telephone Force" and "Our Class at Omaha," presumably while learning the intricacies of the operator's trade. Many of the young woman are depicted posing cheerfully by the side of the road, being lifted and carried about by gentlemen friends, tumbling over each other, and posed in front of road signs, a barber poll, and a movie poster, and in bathing costumes. One is posed by the Walnut Hill Pumping Station in Omaha. In one image two young women embrace in a passionate (albeit probably feigned) kiss. The gentlemen, including Gertrude's future husband, Ridgeway W. Ball, are shown pretending to drink directly from a whisky barrel, in a Shriner's outfit and fez, posing with statues, and a couple of Ball in his WWI military uniform. An early panoramic image shows a row of biplanes at an airfield. The last few images, possibly a couple or few years later, show a thriving city with a museum, public gardens, and a large stadium under construction, possibly in Omaha. Presumably anyone with knowledge of the local architecture would be well-suited to investigate the album more thoroughly. A jaunty and interesting geographically-specific insight in to a young woman's life and local travels in the early 1920s.…