[WOMEN] [OUTDOORS] [PHOTOGRAPHY] "Life at Camp Miller" (Beautifully hand-illustrated photo album with artistic flourishes)

[Nashville?], 1920. Very good. Oblong small quarto. 28 leaves [56pp.] used, the rest blank (about half of the album). Album edges somewhat worn, but still sound. 27 albumen photographic prints, all but two of which are tipped onto the album leaves. Prints generally very good, with occasional mild spotting; some prints overexposed. Altogether very good. A contemporary bookseller label on the rear inner cover for a Nashville (TN) bookstore and one internal reference to the Harpeth River would seem to place the album in the Nashville area. A strikingly attractive photo album, whose real star is a series of drawings and design elements executed by the compiler using the standard white ink, which most contemporary scrapbookers used simply to write captions. Here, however, are elaborate drawings of a woman fishing, two nicely drawn chairs, an Art Nouveau-style "title page" border, an early 20th century-style telephone, and more, along with several pages of original verse. The images themselves center around a group of three women and two men lounging, swimming, talking, and posing for some light-hearted candids.

The "story," which is rather loosely threaded, begins with a long poem about two male-female relationships, and seems to be centered on some inside jokes among the couples. Then, the following six pages contain a continuing story, which begins "Six little campers standing at the gate. Long came a bronco and out went Kate." On that page, there is no photograph, but there is a photograph on each of the next five pages, and tehse correspond to the captions. It continues, "Five little campers standing at the door. Jay overate himself and then there were four." A little later: "Three little campers sitting in the dew. Mirs. Miller got "moon-struck" and then there were two." In the image, the three "little campers" are looking up and to their left, at nothing that can be discerned in the frame. However, on the album page, the author has drawn a moon surrounded by moonlight, bringing the image to life.

The album goes on in this lighthearted vein. One photo, of the three women in outdoors attire (possible swimsuits?) is captioned: "An Adamless Eden." The poem on the opposite leaf reads:

"Three little girls all dressed in blue / Down to the banks of the Harpeth did flew / The rocks were sharp and the water was cold / But two of these girls were very bold. // Now one of these, when the water spied, / Ran to the banks and cried and cried, / She played on the sympathies of the other two, / They were rash in their promises of what they would do. // But Kate cried on and would't come in / Until she succeeded in getting the HIM, / Now this young miss in acting coy / Was planning to capture the only boy."

Resistant to summary cataloguing, the album deserves to be seen in person. Other albums compiled by spirited young amateur photographers of this period tend to be a bit unfocused and not particularly illuminating. This one, however, is just beautifully appointed, and contains the most innovative use of white album ink that this cataloguer has ever encountered.