About this Item
Two photo albums, with a total of over 860 candid black & white shots of Alexander Baum's life in Pittsburgh, a third of which document his canoe trips. Additional images show his activities as a member of the Pittsburgh Aquatic Club, the newly formed Polar Bear Club, canoe stunts at the annual Press Regattas, etc. All of the images are very good, clear. The first album, 5 1/4 x 8 in., black cloth boards bound with cord at the left margin, "Photographs" stamped in gilt on the front board, contains some 240 images laid down or tipped into corner mounts on stiff black sheets. Mounted one or two to a page, most of the photos measure 3 x 4 in., and are captioned in pencil, about 145 of the photos document the canoe trip. An 8-line poem, signed "AB" is penciled into an early page, pondering how the pages will stir his memories of those times in later years. The second image in the album is of three young men, James Garrow, Dave Buell, Chas. Wilson, and a dog named "Tuskie" and is captioned with the optimistic plan for their trip "from Buffalo, NY to New Orleans by canoe." The group left Buffalo on July 29, 1919, and passed through Pittsburgh on Aug. 2, 1919. A second group left Olean, New York on July 28, 1919 on their way to Pittsburgh, including Baum, and three friends, Becker, Jamison, and [Joe] Richards. Baum and "Red" Jamison are shown waiting at the [train] station in Olean with their oars. Several images show views from their two-man canoes once they start out down the Allegheny River. Others show their campsites at Templeton, St. George, and Eagle Rock, Pa., etc. (somebody brought a banjo). There are also several views of steamers plying the river, the Blanche M., P.M. Pfeil, Voyager, Robt. Jenkins, Iron City, Sam Barnum, and others. The floating museum, the British Prison ship "Success" was docked at Pittsburgh when they arrived and they took pictures of themselves climbing onto it. Baum's group does not appear to have gone beyond Pittsburgh. The remainder of the album contains pictures of the Polar Bear Club at S. Sayre's boathouse in the winter of 1919-1920, and the "Original Three," Baum, [Red] Seifert, and [Jake] Harvey; the Press Regatta on the Allegheny River; employees in the bookkeeping department of Pittsburgh Steel Co.; the Traffic Dept. during the Steelmens Strike of 1919; 5 photos of men in uniform, including one taken in front of the barracks in Coblentz, Germany in 1920; and 2 school sports team photos, one baseball and one football. The second album, 10 x 13 in., with approx. 620 images, is bound in black fabrikoid boards, tied with a cord at the left margin, blind embossed "Photographs" on front cover. The photos, from 2 3/4 x 4 1/4 in., down to 1 3/4 x 2 3/4 in., are mounted with corner mounts, between 1 and 12 to a page, on stiff black sheets, many with pencil captions. A few photos are laid in loose. A news article about the 1933 Polar Bears, including Baum, is also laid in. An early page contains another 8-line poem about memories. A group of about 118 images are from the second trip Baum and his friends took, this one from Mayville, NY to Pittsburgh in July 1920. They called themselves "The Jolly Rovers." This group included Richards, [Jim] Monahan, Weber, and Baum [referred to in some of the captions as "The Commodore"]. Camp sites and stops along the way included Westfield, NY, Warren, PA, Ford City, and as on the first trip, a stop at Camp Tempus Fugit at Eagle Rock, PA., owned by Walter Beers. Several of the other photos in this album depict Baum and his friends doing stunts in their canoes, including standing on their heads in the floating canoes, "canoe tilting" [jousting?] at the Press Regatta in August 1920; canoeing under the bridges in Pittsburgh; views of steamers on the river; diving contests, etc. A handful of photos include images of Baum's brother Nicholas, whom he refers to as "The Kid," who enlisted with his horse in September 1920, and served at Ft. Russell, Wyoming with the 15th U.S. Seller Inventory # 68922
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